The Blue Wolf
by Sabeck
Summary: Mid New Moon. Edward has left and Bella finds someone new, Will. Yeah he rocks. Too bad he's a werewolf and has to stay away form her for her own good. Tch, like that'll work. Rated T juuust in case. Complete.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Twilight is, alas, not mine. Go away now lawyer peoples.

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"Today we're going to be going down to La Push First Beach!" 

My teacher's pathetically cheery voice rang through the class of teenagers, some excited, most uncaring but happy to get away from the school. It didn't matter either way, really. Either way he would never be here. I would always be alone, unwanted and he would never even think of me again.

Months ago I would have had to fight hysteria at those thoughts, but now I was hollow.

Empty. Lost.

Our class was now pouring out of the various school buildings and onto a yellow bus, just like those from grade school. How quaint.

As I sat somewhere near the middle of the giant metal boredom machine (bus), staring out the window, numbed and uninterested either way, I realized how alone I was. A lump rose in my throat and grief threatened to overwhelm me.

But I fought it back, realizing as I did that we had come to a stop and that we were piling off the bus. I could see the approaching mass of the other class walking towards us.

I sighed, as I smelled the burgers, the hard-earned meat of the PTA staff, on the grill. Picnic. Yay.

Underneath the shade of the trees encroaching the beach, I watched my classmates frolic with the La Push sophomores. I wasn't really watching them. In truth I was watching the ocean. Grey, with slices of sun glimmering through randomly. It rolled and lapped at the sandy beach and I sighed, wanting to feel it running over my feet but not wanting to run out into the sun. Since he'd left I'd developed almost an aversion to sunlight. Lucky me for living in Forks.

I rose, deciding finally to risk the light and walk down the shore to the water.

A bright pink Frisbee shot from the far end of the beach and thwacked into the side of my head, sending what little balance I had out of order and me tumbling to the shade-cooled sand.

From my vantage point of being… well, dazed and horizontal, I saw two russet-skinned feet beating a pattern in the sand as they approached. I let my gaze travel upward and my breath caught at the beauty of the young man now crouch besides me, look at first happy to find his Frisbee then concerned for the innocent who'd been caught in the line of fire (me).

His face was beautiful in a noble way, handsome in a way that defied your conventional human. His almond-shaped eyes suggested a partially Asian heritage, as did the general angle of his jaw and cheekbones. Also his hair was unlike that of the other males his age. IT was thick and silky, cropped to about two inches, possibly even one and a half. I was possessed with an insane impulse to run my hand through it, to see if it was really as soft and spiky as it looked.

When he spoke it took me a moment before I was done listening to the timbre of his voice, the deep yet somehow youthful tones.

"Are you alright?"

A gracefully strong hand flowed out of the pouch of his sweater. It was the first time I noticed his outfit. Swimming shorts in honor of the beach, and a giant hoodie in honor of the facts that this was still Forks. The sweater was funny, all dark brown with the words:

Vegetarians are eating the rainforests.

Printed across the chest.

I released a small giggle before I could help myself. I was shocked at the sound and the shock pulled me out of the daze of the moment enough to be able to focus on what he was saying, with an amused but still not sure if I was OK or not look on his face.

"Does that mean you're not going to pass out and die?"

I looked at him at surprised, amused shock. My eyes wide and a smile playing across my full lips, something I'd never expected to feel again.

"Because," he went on as he leaned forward, towards me, his face coming daringly close to mine as he bent to retrieve the long-forgotten Frisbee, "I don't know you, but I think I could grow to like you. Or at least not maim you with a Frisbee." He laughed lightly at that and then set off back towards his group of friends.

I didn't want him to go.

"Thanks…"

I murmured as I watched him leave.

That had been shocking. I had, for the first time in almost half a year, not felt the horrific gnawing anguish of the hole. It was odd, and I wasn't ready to let that go. Also, this boy was interesting. Something about him drew me towards him, as if I was a needle and he the Northern Pole…

He turned back around at my words, smiling, hopefully and invitingly.

"No problem. Want to' come?"

My head snapped up to fully meet his gaze. I tugged nervously at the sleeve of my turtleneck, not sure if I was really up to it. But as I looked back up at this refreshing stranger all I could do was smile timidly and think that I might be able to make friends with this person.

He did not seem bothered by slowing his walk to mine at first, possibly because he seemed caught up in staring coldly at every male that passed who gave me the eye. I felt him move closer, defending my against anything (or one.) that might challenge my mental safety or something. Also effectively pissing off those who may have tried to start a conversation with me.

I smiled.

I remembered now what it felt like to have someone who protected me, even if it was in this loose, I-still-don't-know-your-first-name-even, way.

I saw his eyes, even darker than mine, flash down to the curve in my mouth and back up. A group spotted us and waved. Well, spotted _him_. I was still invisible.

But not for long.

My nameless friend, yes he was that even now, a friend, looked over at me quickly. I must have looked calm or something because all he did was return his attention to the group of friends from the La Push High School who now surrounded us.

"Did you find the Frisbee, Will?"

So that was his name.

Will smiled as he answered, "Yes. And look what else I found."

I lifted a hand shyly in greeting, backing up slightly under their sudden curious attention. My head snapped up as I heard my name.

"Bella!"

My eyes met Jacobs in what was a moment of relief for me and clearly a happy moment for him. He broke from the small crowd to cross to me, smiling hugely.

I smiled in automatic response. I'd forgotten about that I still had a friend. Two friends now, with Will, I smiled at this private treasure.

He stopped in front of me, the others now looking truly confused.

"Friends," he gestured to the tiny crowd, "Bella!" he gestured back to me.

-Awkward moment-

"Do you want to join us Bella? The only rules are you can't get killed."

It was William who spoke, with a slight smile on his face as a chuckle rippled through the others.

The game began, and I did what I could to avoid the pink missile. Instead I passed the time trying to figure out Will. He seemed… peculiar. I didn't know a better word for it; there was just something about his godliness that tugged at something within me.

Sighing, and realizing that the game was threatening force me to participate or be knocked unconscious, I moved to the edge of the beach, letting my toes finally sink into the soft, chilled by the sea, sand.

I felt someone come to stand next to me, and was surprised to find it Will. He looked worried.

"Are we boring you?"

**((A/N: God knows you're boring me. No story progress makes Sabeck a dull girl.))**

"Yeah…"

"Aw. Too bad."

I felt him crouch and sit down next to me, the heat radiating off his body warming me. I had become frozen from the inside out since _he'd_ left.

We were silent for what seemed like a long time, the sounds of other students rejoicing in an outing fading into the background as we stared out into the ocean.

I sighed. Here I was, completely surrounded by people, and I was alone… If only…

"Why are you so lonely, Bella?"

His voice shocked me, we'd been quiet for so long. But his words held an even larger shock, that he'd been able to read that off my face.

Not tomention that none of the males my age would ever even _think_ of asking an emotionally in-depth question.

I didn't turn to look at him, shrugging my shoulder to let a curtain of silky dark brown hair flow over my shoulder as a shield.

But I felt his eyes on me and knew that this was someone who.. I didn't know, could take it? Whatever. Either way, he wanted to know.

Sighing again I answered, not meeting his gaze until my sentence was done.

"I'm not alone. I have Charlie and...you."

We made eye contact and he knew he was beginning to cross lines. Backing up, he lightened the moment with a surprisingly perfect smile, baring white teeth and a dimple on one side of his face.

"That's a boat-load of manly responsibility to come flying out of nowhere."

I laughed at that, the mental image accompanied by the lift of despair sending me into an almost hysterical fit. He began to laugh to, enjoying the sound of mine.

Coughing slightly when I was done I looked up at him, an alien blush turning my cheeks a humiliating red.

"You blush!"

Will exclaimed and reached out with one long smooth hand to touch my cheek with his fingertips. I shivered at the wave of warmth that passed through me at his touch, and flushed deeper to find his eyes observing my reaction. Not to mention he was still touching my face. He withdrew his hand quickly, tucking it into the pouch of his fabulous hoodie.

"So, Bella, tell me of you."

"What do you want to know?"

"Anything. Talk about your family, pets… Favorite things… Just… whatever."

He laughed slightly and I smiled, and began talking about "whatever." I told him the first thing that came to mind (second. The first was too painful to speak of.). Pets.

"I think," emphasis on think, I'd never been foolish enough to trust myself with a thing bigger than a goldfish, "That I'm a cat-person."

"What?!"

Jacob. I turned to see him sit down sort of half way between Will and myself. William made a face that almost pleasantly surprised me. Was he… jealous? Upset to be losing alone time with me?

Quickly I pushed the thought from my mind. No. No, I'd just met him. I didn't even know his last name!

I started up as I heard the sound of my teacher calling for us to get back on the obscenely yellow school bus, and head back to school just in time to go home. Will was watching me as I stood, excusing them and saying goodbye to Jacob.

Black eyes held brown for a moment, and I felt like I was falling. But Will blinked and looked away, silently giving me permission to leave. Jacob looked back and forth between us, confused before waving half-heartedly at me.

Oh yeah, I was walking away now.

I suppressed the urge to run back and beg Jacob to invite me for dinner at the sight of the bus, crammed with overexcited peers.

Sigh.

As I pulled into my driveway later that night I couldn't seem to stop pondering Will's eyes. And how the despair had parted, and for the first time in almost six month's I'd felt… happy? No. That wasn't… likely…. But… I had… felt… happy… I think.

Hopefully I would see him soon. For now I had to go back into that kitchen where he once sat and watched me eat.

Welcome back to (Word that rating won't let me use)

* * *

Ok don't laugh. That was my first fan fiction. 

Be kind.

Also, this will NOT be a Jacob/Bella fic. NO. God read New Moon; does it look like Bella loves Jacob?

Well…. Technically yes but still.

(Lol)

Sorry. Tired. Ok writing.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Still not the writer.

Jacob picked up the phone on the first ring.

"Hello?"

His husky voice was a slight cheer but it still wasn't quite what I was after. I was dying to know if William had really been behind my lifted spirits the other day, and now I was calling hoping to get invited over. I actually had a tactful plan on how to find out where William hung out, but I must have lost it in the laundry or something because the first words out of my mouth were,

"Hi Jacob can I come over is Will there?"

There was a silence on the other end. I heard him talking over his shoulder to someone; I could even make out the laughter in his voice. I heard another, deeper voice say something in the background and Jacob bark one short laugh.

"Yeah, actually. He's right here. Come on over Bella."

More sounds in the background.

"Actually, we'll come to you."

Yet more sounds.

"No, wait Will wants to see you here."

The faint sound of Jacob getting whacked on the back of the head with someone and him complaining at his attacker about it.

"Fine," his voice was angered, mostly annoyed, "_We_ want to see you here."

I stifled a giggle and nodded, although it was unnecessary on the phone,

"Right. Be there in a minute."

I couldn't help myself, and laughed as I headed out the door, grabbing my keys on the way.

Short, I know. Forgive me oh glorious readers. R&R.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: In the eternal words of my people:

I didn't write Twilight stay away from me with that subpoena.

Ha ha, only losers like me get that.

I would've broken several road laws, I think, were it not for my car being as old as dirt. Almost.

I still wasn't sure why I was in such a hurry. I just miss Jacob, that's all. No ulterior motives whatsoever.

I lied even to myself.

But in the back of my mind a secret voice of hope whispered that befriending Will might be good for me. That maybe this was someone new, someone you could lo-

I stomped on the voice right there. No. No. No.

Don't be stupid.

All these confusing thoughts were wiped from my mind as I realized I was there, and parked in front of Jacob's tiny house. I looked out my window to see Will watching me, leaning against a tree on the edge of the lot. Jacob must have been inside but at that moment I didn't quite care. Will began moving and I realized that I'd gotten out of the truck and was walking over the springy lawn to him.

We stood a pace apart, just watching each other. I smiled in reflex, the ache was leaving and a new, exciting feeling was beginning to creep into my sense of logic, making me… almost goofy. Goofy. I rolled my eyes inwardly. I really should take a look at a thesaurus when I get home.

But, yet again, all thoughts were wiped from my mind as Will smiled down at me.

"Bella…" He breathed.

"Hello Will," I was still smiling, his presence seemed to do that to me.

"How have you been, not getting maimed by any more Frisbees I hope."

I laughed briefly at his joke, and both of us relaxed as the conversation went on. I soon discovered, as we moved, inch by inch, closer to each other over the course of the conversation, what flirting was. I'd never really done it before, excluding my interrogation of Jacob. I found it was fun; Will was smiling, his dimple showing up again. He didn't smile constantly, like Jacob did, but only when he seemed pleased.

Which was now. Here, with me.

I was, for a third (fourth? Who's really counting?) Time, pulled out of my thoughts when Will touched my forehead with his first two fingers.

"And this? How is your head?"

"Fine."

His fingers drifted downwards on my face, and both of our expressions faded as they did so. His silken russet skin lightly traced the shape of my eye, skimming over my cheek to just barely touch my lips.

The spell was broken as Jacob emerged onto the lawn.

"Bella! Will!"

He jogged over to us, and Will lazily pulled his hand back to his side, backing up minimally. Jacob stopped when he reached us, looking back and forth, from Will to me and back again.

"Ah…"

He said and slowly turned, trying to hide a small (sad?) smile as he said,

"You know what? I've got something to... finish… in the garage… alone…."

And then he was gone; running through the brief patch of woods to where I presumed his garage lay hidden. I turned back to Will to see an annoyed/embarrassed expression on his strikingly handsome face. His full, perfect lips barely moved as he muttered something I was almost sure I wasn't supposed to hear:

"Way to give me away Jacob, now she'll… Damn." 

I tried not to understand what he meant by that. I tried and failed. Part of me pitied him because it knew he would be in for disappointment with me. But another part, a part that had just recently raised its head as Will was touching me, said differently. This part of me was excited, thrilled and hopeful.

Much later that day, until the point where day faded and night rose

I hugged my pillow tightly to my chest. The glowing numbers o my alarm clock reminded me again that I really should be asleep.

But I couldn't. Not tonight. Earlier I had felt myself live again. And.. Something else.

Something new.

It terrified thought, this emotion and me that was beginning, even now, to blossom in my mind.

Love. Do I love Will?

_Yes…._

The realization shocked me and delighted me. Love. NO. Furiously, another part of me rejected it.

I couldn't afford love, not again.

_Let him go…_ Part of me whispered… _He let you go…_

I wept bitterly, heartbrokenly, into my pillow. The pain tore at my chest as I let him go.

It was what he wanted, wasn't it? It was what I wanted. He wasn't here anymore, this love would burn me up. I needed to drop it, let it die. I had to.

And maybe I could, with the help of Will.

Though tears continued to stream down my face, I felt the healing effect of Will's clear affection running through me like crystal clear water through a long dried up spring. My grief propelled me up, out of my bed and to the window, sobbing to hard with the pain of letting him go to stand up.

Supporting myself on the windowsill, I shoved it open. I'm still not positive now whether or not I was mentally begging him, wherever he was, to come through it and make me whole again. But he didn't. And the only thing coming through was the rain, pelting and the wind, bearing the cracklings of lightning.

I screamed my broken heart out to the storm, the wind drowning me out by far.

Pulling myself back, I pushed the old window down, closing out the storm. I slumped down, head resting against the now-damp windowsill. My own hair was just as wet, dripping slightly and tousled by the wind.

A new emotion opened its eyes and looked about for the first time within me.

Rage.

Blinding, white rage.

Edward. I had loved him beyond belief and he had left me.

I let the rage consume me.

Months pass.

I stood, leaning against Will on his sofa in the living room as we watch SpongeBob Squarepants. His sister, Will's only living relative to my knowledge, was in the kitchen singing something airily. Maria had never quite had the gift, or so she'd told me.

Will twisted back around to reach over the back of the couch to get the cherries Maria had been dipping in chocolate. She had started this project immediately when she heard I'd never had any. I still don't know where she found them…

But as Will twisted, I lost my place and fell onto his lap, looking up at him with surprised eyes. Will burst out laughing at my expression and placed the bowl of cherries on my stomach, just above my belly button. I smiled up at him and opened my mouth, still smiling.

Wills expression, while still lifted with a slight smile, grew... Entranced. For lack of a better word.

He lifted a cherry to my mouth by the stem and lowered it into my mouth. My lips closed on it and I chewed. Flutterings went through my stomach as his fingers brushed my lips as he pulled his hand away. Lifting his other hand he brushed my long, dark hair back from my face.

Both of us stopped breathing for a moment.

Maria then entered, shattering the moment. Will pulled up and I realized he really had been lowering his face to mine; it wasn't just a hallucination!

"Do you like the cherries?"

"Yes, they're wonderful."

I tried to roll out of Will's lap and onto my feet but I failed. Instead I came into contact with his living room floor. Maria laughed but tried to hide it behind a cough. Will was at my side in an instant, reaching a hand out to me.

Ivory and russet skin locked as he pulled me up. I flushed and stumbled away.

"Maria.. needs… kitchen-help…."

"Bella?"

I couldn't help but turn back to him, my face still crimson.

"Want to go hiking?"

A few months ago I would have been gasping on the floor when he said that. Now I just beamed, happy to be doing something with my time outside of work.

"Of course, Will."

He smiled and the room seemed to be illuminated for a moment.

"Of course."


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I didn't write it… but I did write this. Back plagiarists, back!

A/N: I skipped the walking part because I am writing something else at this time with the characters traveling and walking scenes are beginning to piss me off.

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Will and I stepped out into the faulted sunlight of the meadow. Its beauty was still surreal, but I was rapidly beginning to regret coming here with him.

I could feel the abhorrent vacancy in my heart beginning to open.

"Bella?"

The sound of Will's voice pulled me out of it, to my amazed relief. He was looking at me curiously, his concern masked behind his black eyes. If he were a vampire, I'd be dead right now, I thought ironically. I gave a small, harsh laugh at this.

"I'm fine. What about.."

But I trailed off. Through the woods I could see a figure walking towards us. I knew, without a doubt that it wasn't him, but still a flicker of hope burned within me at that moment.

Laurent.

The flicker died.

Will tilted his head curiously; wondering at who else would be out here. I could see by how he tensed, moving closer to me till his front was almost brushing my side, his posture too became protective. He was still watching Laurent with his dark eyes. Wills long, muscled figure was shaking with what I presumed to be fear.

"Bella, how lovely to see you again."

"Laurent." I smiled. But a voice in the back of my head, the same voice that grew stronger with every minute spent with Will. I'd ponder that later, for now we had a vampire in front of us with eyes as black as Will's.

"Bella, I was just thinking of you. How convenient to find you here with another snack."

I could see that here, with another human with me, he was not going to even try to make conversation.

Will whirled at this, placing me halfway behind him as he did so, his shaking growing. Wills dark eyes seemed to dialate, the black sweeping past the boundaries of the irises and covering almost his entire eyes. Laurent snapped up, out of his feral position, into a fighting stance, slowly.

"Vampire..."

Will hissed this, to my shock. How would he know? Suddenly Jacob's words came flashing back to me and I backed up a pace.

Werewolf.

Laurent voiced this thought with a laugh.

"And a young one of you at that. You wont even know how to transform, or wont be old enough to." he smiled darkly at this and flashed forwards, in Will's face in an instant. Two pale, graceful hands slammed into Will's chest, covered only by a t-shirt, and Will flew backwards, landing fifteen feet away, across the meadow. He lifted himself after a moment, still shaking, eyes still entirely black, to look furiously and groggily at Laurent. Said vampire had flashed over to me and was now standing behind me, cold hands holding my jugular and me near him.

"It's my game," Laurent said with a satisfied hiss in his voice, "Still my game." he repeated before lowering his head to my neck, ignoring my terrified thrashings, and pulled back his lips to bite.

His head and mine snapped up at a roar from Will.

"Your game..." The shaking had not blurred him so much yet that I could not see the dark grin that spread across his features, "My rules now."

Will wiped the blood from his nose away with the back of his hand as he twisted his form expertly, lifting himself off the ground and planting his feet soundly. It was a spectacular move that would kill me if I tried it. Will rolled his shoulders back as he rose, the shaking threatening to blur his figure. And then he was gone, in a flash, and a giant wolf stood where he had been just moments ago.

I could feel Laurent backing away from my petrified body, still upright to my credit, and beginning to turn to flee.

But neither of us could tear our eyes away from the smoky graphite-black wolf that was currently lurching forwards onto all fours, shaking out its glistening metallic coat before focusing two black eyes on Laurent. Its muzzle pulled back in a savage grin and Laurent fled.

Will roared and plunged into the woods after him.

That's all I have time for sorry. R&R.


	5. Chapter 5

Wee! I didn't know I could do that! OK story….

The weeks without Will passed agonizingly slowly. I hadn't known someone outside of the fool who left me and broke my heart could hurt me this much (You know him as Edward) but I guess loving someone gave them the ability to hurt you.

As I thought this I sat bolt upright in bed.

I'd thought about it before, did I…?

Not that it mattered now. I sank back into my sheets, the warm darkness of my bed engulfing me.

William…. 

The mental image of his perfect features looking down at me from my vantage point of being sort of half on his lap. The way his black eyes had softened flickers of green almost coming into them when the light from the window angled in just right. The way his long, dark hand had reached out immediately to help me up.

An ache almost (but not quite) as deep as the one that had been born when Edward left me yawned open within my chest.

I flipped over onto my back and buried my face in my pillows, aching.

The whispers of a plan drifted through my mind.

I tugged at the whispers, weaving them into a plan.

I fell asleep doing this, with a satisfied smile on my face.

"Hello?"

"Maria." My voice gave away how relieved I was that someone was answering the phone now. They'd disconnected their line for a few agonizing weeks. "Is Will there?"

"Yeah! He's ri-" her voice was cheery at first but then there was an interruption as someone presumably said something to her, "I mean... Let me check."

I smiled as I heard the faint argument being had in the background and Maria's voice arguing back to a much deeper, more masculine one. Will.

"Bella…"

Wills voice breathed my name into the phone in a way that sent shivers down my spine.

I had it bad.

"Will. I haven't seen you will you come down to the beach or something so we can talk I find phone conversations cold."

I also found that I was being a complete idiot, saying these things aloud. I heard Will make that sound somewhere being amused and confused.

"Of course Bella. Anything."

The last word was hurried too, as if he'd said something unintentional as well. There was a moment of silence as both of us digested this new thing. I smiled imagining him cursing himself for giving something away.

"I'll see you then." My smile was evident in my voice, as was his when he said goodbye and we hung up.

I rushed to my car and away, willing the monster of an engine to go somewhere illegal in the speed department.

Stupid motor.

Will was standing actually on the rocky beach, in a grey knitted turtleneck that despite its age looked like an advertisement for sexy old sweaters.

I was sure, as a werewolf, he heard me the moment I came clattering down the rocky beach.

He turned to look at me, his expression solemn.

His fast, dark eyes read the lost, hopeful, aching look on my face and darkened for reasons unknown to me.

"You know."

"I know."

Silence passed between us, the calm ocean making its presence known.

"So then you understand why I can't be around you."

"No! Will!" I moved rapidly closer to him, and Will moved as well until we were barely a meter apart. Oh the joys of friendship.

"Bella," his voice was as emotional as mine was now, I imagined I heard an ache in it to match mine. But I was probably just hearing what I wanted to hear. "No. I can't, for you for your safety, I **can't.**"

"But-"

"No!" His voice and expression made it clear to me how difficult this was for him, "Bella, please I'm begging you. We can't be friends, anything, anymore. It could **kill** you."

These words were too familiar. Even though I had long since let Edward go I could feel a similar wound opening in my chest, deeper than last night's by far.

But, almost simultaneously, I felt my rage for Edward rising within me and beginning to channel itself into a long-repressed issue I had.

"William. How dare you."

Will looked surprised, with confusion and the same ache I could feel still in my eyes evident in his.

"I," I started off on a seemingly different track but it was basically just me continuing my rant, "I am so _sick_ of everyone" meaning Edward and now Will yay what fun this is, " deciding what's safe for me and what isn't. People keep taking away the things I want in the name of saving me! And you! Will, you were the first really never to do that. The first one I loved I mean-"

"What?" Will's head snapped up from its slightly guilty slump/avoid-don't-make-eye-contact position.

"I **said** that I was tired of-"

"No." Will interrupted me again, and behind my irritation I began to feel something creeping up my spine like ivy, making my heart flutter and feel as if it were dancing on thin ice. "Not that," he moved closer to me, a smile beginning to form on his flawless, black-Adonis (Native American/Mediterranean technically) face. "The other part."

I sighed, this time happily, with a hint of how I was giving up now. Giving up trying into to fall in love again, and giving up pretending I hadn't loved him since the moment I'd seen him.

"William, Will," I moved closer to him as I said this, "I love you. Entirely and unequivocally **love _you_**. How could anything as wonderful as you ever hurt me?"

Will's face as I said this was priceless. Like the sun dawning over a new day, the first day, as if the night had never before seen anything brighter than the stars.

And I was his sun.

Everything clicked together now. As Will moved quickly forward to crush me against his wooly sweater and muscled chest, pulling me up till my face was less than an inch from his. One of his arms was wrapped around me, supporting my feet from the ground, and the right came up behind my head, his palm located in the right place to trace the left side of my face. ((From someone else's view, not Bella's left I mean))

"Bella..." he breathed, and kissed me.

My world exploded into light. I was floating in a sea of it, the heat of our love coursing through me, warming me with happiness till I thought I would surely burst. My hands found their way to his face, and then lower to his collarbone and the beginning of his long torso. He broke away for a moment to smooth my hair back from my face, his eyes filled with love.

Any holes I may have had left filled, spilling over. I was almost certain if I looked down I would see our love around us, flooding the beach.

"I love you.." he whispered this again before being cut off as I started kissing him again.

I loved the way our mouths moved. It was obscenely different than my chaste kisses with Edward, pressing out mouths together for a moment before backing away to keep from killing me. Our mouths opened and closed, opened and closed. Breathing each other in and smiling.

I thought I would die of my happiness.

We pulled back then, resting our foreheads against each other's.

"Bella…"

"Will…"

We were both smiling.

"I guess I won't stay away from you then." Happiness saturated his voice.

"Promise?"

"Not even if I wanted to."

I smiled. This was all I wanted. Just someone to love who would love me back.

And now I had Will, who was more than I had dreamed of since Edward.

THE END

A/N: cackles Ha, ha, haaa… No. We haven't even _gotten_ to Eddie yet.

Will and I sat at a pack meeting, I sat on top of Will, his hands on my stomach, mine over his. Sam was talking, Jacob wasn't looking at us, and the rest of the pack seemed to be paying attention. Who knew?

Since falling for Will, or admitting it at least, I felt more relaxed than I'd felt in a while.

Right now I was distracted by what Will was doing, lifting one of his hands to push my dark brown hair away form my neck, letting his fingers trace my delicate veins running beneath my equally delicate skin. When he pressed his lips to the skin behind my ear I shivered, trying to repress my smile; the rest of the pack didn't need to see that. Will didn't seem to care. I heard a slight chuckle and he stopped, respecting the limits being in company raised not to mention Sam's authority. I could just imagine the mental conversation happening now, especially since the other's (excluding Emily) had begun to look like they were suppressing laughter while Sam's topic remain on checking out a new meeting place outside of his tiny living room because-

What?

Sam gave me a brief look before continuing politely. "As I was saying, a new place would be good. I am getting tired of you guys breaking my living room and Victoria,"

Yes. Back in black, as they say. Or back in vengeance for killing my vampire lover. Same thing.

"Would most likely destroy my home if and when she finds out about it. So. Where can we go that's a defendable place no one wants anymore?"

"A place that's preferably not a warehouse." Emily piped up and I air-fived her from across the room, both of us suppressing giggles.

After a moment I spoke up. I wasn't sure if it was the best idea… no, wait I was. Well, the best one to _me_. Let's see what they thought about it.

"Well.." I began then paused, waiting to get their attention. I knew I had Will's. Smiling to myself I went on, "We could always go to the Cullen's old place."

They stopped and stared at me for a moment, paused to consider it (they'd never actually seen it, the vampires hadn't been there for months, how bad could it really be?) before Sam spoke.

"Take us there, if you would, Bella. "

We pulled up into the driveway, and everyone piled out of my car. Will and I strode ahead to the great white mansion. After several months of un-habitation the house itself was the same, but the lawn was gone. Lost to the myriad of weeds.

I could feel their awe from here.

I led the awestruck pack of werewolves into the abandoned house, sucking in a breath as the memories, long let lie to get dusty in the corners of my mind, came rushing back to me. I couldn't help but share them.

"This is their home,_ was_ their home." I corrected, moving away room Will to gaze around at the room, still beautiful even after all this time.

I turned, smiling faintly as it came back. I could sense their eyes (the pack's) on me.

"Here," I spoke with a smile walking to the space near the front doors, "Is where I was introduced to Esme and Carlisle, by… Edward…" The wolves looked a little dumbfounded on top of awestruck, clearly trying to picture these things still so clear to me.

"And here," I was smiling honestly now as I walked over to the staircase, letting my hand rest on the majestic rail, "Is where Alice dragged me down after playing Guinea Pig Barbie with me getting me ready for my prom." I let out a small laugh, and the tiniest hint of tears rose in my eyes. But I pushed them back.

I turned fully then, and my eyes found the grand piano. Still on the stand, covered in a white protective sheet. I walked slowly over to it, my smile fading. I was afraid, in that moment, that I would sweep back the sheet and everything, Will, Edward would be a dream. I was also terrified that I was here, where I'd been, so many broken hearts ago.

I swept back the sheet and the dust polluted the air for a moment before settling.

And there it was, his piano, still as white and perfect as I remembered it. I didn't dare sit down and test it, to see if it were real or even in working order.

"And here," I let out a small, sad laugh and I felt Will's presence suddenly behind me, "Here is where Edward played the piano for me."

I felt a single tear roll down my cheek and I almost imagined that my imaginary Edward, the one where he was still at the piano, waiting for me, leaned forward to wipe it away and then steal a taste. Instead Will kissed the tear, and the trail it'd left on my face. He kissed my eyelids and I felt safe again, secure enough to on existing.

I turned back to them, Will turning with me so he was behind me again.

"So that's this floor." My tone lightened the mood immensely, and the members began spreading out, exploring it independently. Will stayed with me, as always.

"Bella, do you need to remember?"

You see this was part of why I loved Will. He understood that as much as I loved Edward I had let him go, but I still missed the others. They had never done anything wrong. Will, despite being a werewolf, had told me that he wished he could meet Alice, or wrestle emotions with Jasper. I sighed.

Will swept me up then, carrying me as if I were a bride or something equally absurd. I laughed and demanded he put me down but he just laughed too and kept walking, taking me up the stairs. He didn't seem to mind carrying me like this despite my rather short skirt. Thank goodness for the black tights I'd worn for the weather. My shirt was along-sleeved T-Shirt that Will had gotten for me from wherever he got insane things like this it had a doodled cartoon picture of a cookie walking hand in hand with milk and the cookie was saying: I love you! It was the cutest thing I had ever seen, and the dark blue material of the shirt went very well with my skin, as Edward had pointed out what seemed like years ago. My skirt was black, and my tights, although dark, had a slight blue tint to tem and tiny flowery shapes cut out of them.

I loved my tights.

I looked up at Will as we stood now in the end of a hallway no the third floor which I'd rarely visited.

"Bella…"

My head snapped up to meet his gaze, curious and slightly sad.

"Yes, Will?"

"It's okay to miss them… I'll still love you."

"Oh Will," I tried to smile and laugh it off, but my attempt was weak, "I don't know what you…" A tear leaked out. Will opened his arms seeing as how he'd put me down and backed up so we could enjoy the view without breaking our necks. I ran the two feet into them and buried my face in his chest, trying to take deep, calming breaths as I wept.

"Bella, it's okay now. I love you. You'll be alright."

"Will, I miss them. I want to talk to them again, want to run from Alice when she's in that mood, and want to listen to Carlisle talk about his amazing history. I want…"

"Him." I realized Will was shaking.

Jealously.

I looked up at Will, my tears still damp on my face, although most were in Will's shirt.

"No! No, Will! How could you think that! I will _never_ want that terrible… man" I forced the word. Any other would have been a screamed curse-word. Which would not lead to the conclusion that I was sane. " for anything other than giving him a piece of my mind!"

Wow I sounded old.

Will laughed slightly and I did too, relieved immediately at the rich sound. His laughter was like warm cream for the ears, rich and flowing.

Will bent his head down to mine to commence kissing me, his warm wide lips pressing fiercely against mine. He nibbled my lip and I shivered, feeling him smile against my mouth. Planning on paying him back I licked lips. Unfortunately this had the opposite effect, to my delight…..I felt myself tilting my head backwards as on of his hands flowed up from my waist to the collar of my shirt, feeling the skin of my neck and slipping underneath my shirt, over my bra strap to cup my shoulder.

My own hands slid to his face, enjoying its non-vampirical perfection.

We stopped at the sound of another musical voice, one I'd hoped never to hear again.

"I would greatly love a piece…"

My entire body went ridged and I slowly turned my head to gaze down the hallway at the figure I wished was a hallucination.

Edward.

He walked forward a pace, now he was only 7 feet from us, and stopped. He look so sad, standing there, lost.

I was suddenly acutely aware of Will, and that he was as tense as I was. Will released me, keeping only an arm around my waist for support and to draw the lines of our relationship clearly to Edward. As in, don't cross these lines you damn bloodsucker or I'll kick your ass.

Pretty clear lines if you as me.

But for now there was only Edward staring at me, looking like he was dying, and then to Will. And then how the dying look was pushed back and all that was was

Stone.

Cold.

Silence.

A/N: Ohhhh, I love doing these cliffy things. R&R


	6. Chapter 6

**Angstangstangst.**

**Disclaimer: -sigh- I still didn't write it.**

**A/N: I was going to have her and Will kissing in Edward's room, but I know an Edward-groupie (outside myself) who would get a wee bit angry at me for that.**

**. R&R**

**ALSO: The Blue Wolf is not named after Will. He's all black/graphite-luscious. Blue because The Graphite Wolf doesn't sound as good. To me at least, I don't know about you.**

**READ**

"Edward…" I spoke his name again, and this time my voice was a little louder. I was trying, while maintaining a calm exterior, to deal with the torrent f impulses raging inside me.

Firstly there was the issue of it being Edward. Here. Now. Here. Three excellent subjects that should be dealt with. My shock was enormous, and didn't seem to be going away.

Second of all there was my self-empowered anger at him for leaving me.

And finally, there was my love. How I hadn't quite realized how much I'd wanted to see him (for a while at least) and hear him speak. Love. Love, love, love. I loved Edward. I loved Edward Cullen and for a while he had loved me before leaving out of boredom.

There was that anger again.

But, oddly enough, I felt myself beginning to cry, the tears repressed moments before rising to the surface again along with my old, dull ache.

I pulled my eyebrows down, expressing the fury that was far from dormant.

"Edward." The third time I spoke his name he and Will heard the anger in it.

"Bella, can I talk to you? I'm… There's just a lot to say." He looked away, shy suddenly, but I could sense his discomfort and curiosity at my anger from here. I looked up at Will, knowing what Edward was about to say. Will couldn't seem to decide between glaring at Edward and looking desperately at me.

"Alone."

I knew it.

Will growled his 'No.' and Edward bristled, turning to fully face us. Will shifted slightly to put me behind him a tiny bit and I saw Edward try to mask his hurt that I might ever need to be protected from him. This didn''t soften his responding growl as Will flexed his fingers and tremors began rolling through him.

Emily's face flashed through my mind.

It must have gone through Will's at the same time or something, because he stood bolt upright. Edward, obviously, saw it too and soon we were back to our tense silence.

I sighed in resignation.

"Just go Will."

Will walked past Edward, glaring at him as he moved past. Edward turned the glare, and it looked like he was trying not to notice again when Will gave me a look, which I returned with a smile.

And then all focus turned to Edward. The second Will was safely downstairs Edward flashed over to me, crushing me to him. Inhaling my essence. I fought the urge to embrace him back, and lost. We hugged, there in the muted light of a cloudy noonday, the elegant hallway stretching beneath us.

"Oh, Bella… I don't know where to begin."

We had backed up now and I had the courage to look up into his eyes and summon my justified anger.

"How about with why you're here?"

Edward looked confused at my angered expression and almost stuttered on his response.

"You. It's been so hard to stay away from you Bella, you have no idea." Again someone around me gave away more than they intended. Why was that? Edward was talking again and I was distracted from these unimportant thoughts by his voice, still as perfect as it had ever been. "Bella, I had a plan actually," he laughed a little looking back at me, neither of us being able to look away, "I was going to come back here just to check on you, but then you weren't at your home so I went back to mind, to try to gain enough strength to stay away from you , to keep you safely away, despite the pain. But, then I smelled them.. " Edward repressed a growl, and with difficulty let it go. "And I was almost ready to call Carlisle, just to check to see if we should do something. And then.. I smelled you. I thought I was hallucinating, if that was possible for vampires, so I followed your scent. And there you were, talking about me no less. And with… someone…else. Someone, not me… "Edward pinched his eyes shut, biting back another growl, this time I could almost hear the sorrow mangled with it. "And so, now I don't know what to do. Just… Do you love him?"

Of the various battles clearly going on within him, jealousy seemed to be triumphant. This shocked me out of any civility I might have had otherwise.

"Edward! Who are you to leave" both of us were emotion now, and I could see that he would've had tears in his eyes too if it were possible. Whether they'd be tears of anger of sadness I'm not sure. I went on. "OT leave, and then come back and act like you still make the decisions for me, about _me?_"

"And look what happens when you make the decisions!" _Werewolves_ start running your life instead of vampires! _Werewolves…" _he hissed the word again.

Now we were glaring at each other.

"Edward Cullen, no matter how much I loved you at some point in time, I do not now. You are **not** the love of my life anymore. Will is. So back off with these accusations, come back when you're justified." I was so furious then, but no amount of anger could keep me from hurting as I saw the pain wash over Edward's face.

I drew in a breath, a hiss between my clenched teeth.

"Go."

That was most likely the hardest thing I had ever had to do, in truth. My mind tried to cheer me up and onward, telling me how it was good to get all of this, however blunt, out of the way. As much as I believed this, a tiny, persistent part of me was mourning for Edward.

Will walked up the stairs. Edward, it seemed, had done what I asked for nonce and left.

"Bella?"

I looked up at Will, and yet another wave of relief rolled through me. This **was** the right thing to do, I was sure now. Thoughts of lonely Edward were swept form my mind as Will reached out a hand to touch my cheek gently. His face was reseved, but I read concern in his eyes.

"I'm tired Will. And I hurt." I looked up at him and for the first time in ages needed my big, manly legend to take care of me. MY wide, brown eyes were so sad as they met his back ones and he sighed, although the sound was caught on his empathy for me.

Will scooped me up, like a bride once more, and I clung tighter to him, my hands finding their way around his neck. I tucked my head into the base of his neck, inhaling the smell of his skin, now so close to my face.

"I'm here."

And we were gone.

**R&R my pretties R&R.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Yay 7th Chapter!**

**Disclaimer: Do I look like Stephanie Meyer? The answer, if you can't see me and hopefully you can't, is NO. Now go away little lawsuits, scamper off you little rascals.**

**Read please and ignore my hyper ness.**

Will stopped running when we reached my door, debating opening it before kicking it down. I was too out of it then to notice.

I looked up at Will sadly and groggily,

"Will, can you stay?"

Conflict crossed his face and I could see him weighing pissing Sam off and spending the night at my house.

"Of course." I smiled a tiny smile. It was good to be clearly worth more than at least someone's respect for authority.

He walked through my tiny kitchen, it seemed pathetic now for some depressing reason, and up the stairs to my bedroom door. Will paused, as if to savor these first moments within the boundaries of my house, this close to my room. Will didn't lift his leg to kick down this door, which made me smile to myself. He butted me gently with his head and I reached down and opened it for him.

**Will's perspective for a moment:**

Bella's room spread out before me, not huge or extravagant, but it somehow felt like thi is where I should be. Here. With her.

Bella sighed sadly again, and another wave of agonizing empathy swept through my heart. I walked over to her lovely bed and laid her down. Not being able to take my black, helplessly in love eyes off of her, I didn't check for anything to sit on and sat, cross-legged, by the side of her bed.

I let my head rest on the edge of her bed, watching as she tried to pull the covers up with her toe. I silently reached down and pulled them up over her, watching a small smile grow on her face as she opened her eyes.

What beautiful eyes she had, deep and almost as dark as mine, but at the same time not nearly. Bella's eyes alone would be enough to make me love her.

"Will..." she sighed my name and I smiled again, focusing.

"Hey, brown-eyed-girl, what's up?" I smiled and brushed her hair back from her face. Bella gave a small laugh and I basked in the warmth of her features and of the moment.

She sighed again and once more her smell triggered my reaction. I moved my face just a little bit closer to get a stronger dose of her fragrance.

Intoxicating.

But I came back top earth as Bella started talking to me, exhausted from the emotional strain that had ruined the day and content to be home again.

"Will, why do you think people fall in love?" After I paused, and I had nothing to say, just amused to hear her rant. Bella went on, "You want to know what I think? I think…" She was tired and the words were coming lazily. "I think it's because we're crazy. We give our whole selves away to someone, regardless of whether or not they _really_ return the feeling, and at first it's wonderful. But what happens when one person leaves, just...stops caring? What happens to the other?" Her voice grew tense now, and hse sat u. I watched her face all the while. "The other. The other is left, abandoned on the street. Lost and emptied out, because the other forgot to give back their insides. And so, in the very end…all love leaves is ashes. The remnants of a person, whose love burned them up."

I grew sad to hear her words, and aching filled me. I lifted my hand again to stroke her cheek, to soothe these anxieties back so Bella could be Bella. I pondered for a moment before speaking quietly and raising myself to my knees as I spoke.

"Bella, do you want to know what I think?" she gave a tiny, upset nod, "I think that people fall in love for many reasons, and either way the result is insanity, "She smiled and I continued, "But, I think that if one leaves, the other does sometimes get lost. But the truth is, without love we all are lost. Lost in the forest of society, searching, always searching for the one. The reason. Not that you need to worry about that, " I gave a small smile and took her face in my hands, loving how pale they were against my dark skin. Bella still looked a little sad so I finished up, not wanting her to suffer like this any longer. "Because you're found. I found you. And you'll never be lost again. So don't worry…" I breathed my last words and we kissed, sweet and found.

Whole unto each other.

Her lips moving against mine was s sensation that, no matter how many times we seemed to take the pleasure of doing it, was constantly new. Her soft, warm self pressed against my own supernatural one.

Bliss.

I let her go, pulling back to give her breathing space. Or panting space considering it was Bella after kissing.

"Now go to bed, and I'll see you in the morning."

"No!" I looked at her curious. What was wrong? "Stay…" she said again, whispering again.

"Of course, Bella."

"No, I meant stay…here..." she patted the bed space next to her and I sucked in a breath, forcing thoughts that would not help from my mind. "Not like that!" Bella flushed, the darkness not helping to hide it. "Just stay with me, that's all I want. I'm tired and I want you with me. You can be like my security blanket, only in the form of a werewolf." She was smiling now, and the darkness lifted as if it were noon when she did. I smiled in response.

"Security blanket it is then."

I crawled up and over Bella to lie beside her, on top of the covers, not wanting to cross any unseen lines. That could result in some serious pain. Bella surprised (in the good way) me by tugging the blanket out from under me and tossing it over both of us. I felt her arms wrapping around me. I wrapped my own arms around her, pulling her in close to me. I lifted a hand to brush her cheek again. Bending my head down I kissed her on the forehead.

"Blanky says bedtime."

It was a few minutes before Bella stopped laughing at that, the mental image of me as a blanky commanding her to get to bed.

But in time both of us drifted off, and the world faded until all that existed were Bella and myself, still wrapped in each other.

**Awww, romantic scenes are so fun to write.**

**R&R people….**


	8. Chapter 8

**I am not the founder of the Twilight Series BUT I did make Will. So back off.**

**While I'm here, in the BOLD LOCK or whatever it's called, I'd like to say a few special words:**

**Peacocks. They're the celebrities of the animal kingdom. Love them.**

**Thank you, oh wonderful Editor-Lady of mine. What would I do without your endless critique? No I kid. She's (he's? idk) pretty cool.**

**My homey who bullied me into writing more of this than the first chapter. She's also pretty cool.**

**And now with the story. Yes we're back to Bella's perspective.**

Will rode shotgun as I drove, my old truck still not fully cooperating. Will smiled as I glared at it and I blushed, embarrassed to be caught having a mental war with a vehicle.

We pulled up to the Cullen's old mansion and piled out, the rest of the pack taking the lead this time as Will and I followed, walking hand in hand. I tripped over one of the weeds on the way up but Will caught me. He carried me from there on in, despite my protests, laughing as I thumped his chest halfheartedly demanding he put me down. I was laughing myself.

He flipped me for a sec so he could carry me as if I was, as I've said before, some kind of bride.

To a werewolf.

_Don't be silly little narrative voice in my head, werewolves don't exist!_

I was giddy to the point of laughing at the random things going on inside my head, the troubles of yesterday forgotten just now. I felt insane and happy at the same time.

Insanely happy.

My giggles subsided as Will and I both calmed down enough to actually walk. The others ignored us; they'd seen it before.

"It's still hard to believe this place is ou-"

Paul's disbelieving voice was cut off as we opened the front door.

I couldn't believe it.

The Cullens, all seven of them, sat on the couches and various chairs. They were just as perfect, if not more so somehow, than how I remembered them. Esme and Carlisle sat next to each other, each respective couples holding each other's hands.

And then there was Edward. My smile died off my face as we made eye contact. bUt he kept his face cool, turning his golden eyes to Will's black ones, which were just as mad as Edward's.

Tattletale.

"We don't _knock_ when we enter other's houses?"

Carlisle's voice was cool, contained. A stark contrast to how things were in reality. Paul was already shaking too hard to see clearly, and the others were all visibly shaking with the effort of not phasing. Will was too, although he contained his fairly well. He and Edward were still glowering at each other.

Crap.

**Shorter than my usual short, I know. R&R please.**


	9. Angry Bella

**Disclaimer: Read the past 8 or so disclaimers I've posted. **

**OkOkOk, people, I had need to take a poll. **

**Message me or something with your answers. You don't have to back it with reasons, just give me your answer. And no cheating. K, I am speaking to my two lonely little fans here. Wee! Fans! You know I love you. You know who you are. Maybe.**

**OK getting back on topic.**

**Poll questions that you should not spam others with because I will get yelled at:**

**1) Will is an idiot and should be killed off NOW**

**2) Will is… OK. Just not Bella-worthy. As long as he loses to Edward or Jacob I'm OK with him. That little hooligan. (I type that endearingly)**

**3) Will is the chizz and makes a good character and love for Bella**

**4) I'm going to ignore the questions Sabeck poured her heart, soul and five minutes of her item thinking up to instead say that she should make a funny, condensed version of The Blue Wolf called The Graphite Wolf**

**I wonder why I make 4 questions when I have only 2 fans….. **

**Storyyyyy!**

"Bella." Carlisle greeted me, nodding once. The others nodded as well. Barely.

I was clearly a wolf-girl now, no longer one of them. I felt the cold as they glared at me icily for a moment. I could almost _feel_ Alice inspecting the faded skinny jeans and my giant, wide-collar, knit sweater that had a little cartoon wolf face on the front. I had received it from Emily as a joke. The sweater bared my collarbones and shoulder, when off center anyway. It was really something you could only wear when you _weren't_ dating a vampire.

"How have you been, Carlisle?" I kept my voice civil. Someone had to be.

"We have been fine, Bella. A little worried about Edward here…" he gestured to Edward, " For reasons I assume you know." I nodded. "But, oh I'm sorry, form what I hear he isn't yours anymore. He," Carlisle indicated Will with a regal gesture, the closest thing anyone that tense could muster, "is, for now at least. And them. How different things are since we left."

Will's shaking grew at Carlisle's words, but he didn't break eye contact with Edward. Alice, to my immense relief spoke up then.

"Victoria, I see is back. And Laurent."

"The red haired female and the black haired male?" Sam asked, surprised it seemed that a 'leech' might possess an identity outside of that. The Cullens each nodded. "Well, 'Laurent' is dead. Again." his voice was still tense, all of ours were, but at least no one had been eviscerated yet. "Will took him down when he tried to get Bella."

The Cullens all looked briefly at Will, measuring him up briefly again, reweighing the scales, before turning back to Sam. Alice's eyes, however, remained on Will, studying him. Were I her I would e studying his perfection, it rivaled even their own. But, considering I was not one of them (and never would be) I had to assume it was something she'd seen.

Will and Edward hadn't blinked in about five minutes at this time.

"So, I see even your younger members can handle themselves." Carlisle was still the only one talking. I could see that even Esme hadn't relaxed yet, the presence of the werewolves' still not quite working with the vampires. And vise versa.

"Yes. Leeches prove no challenge." Sam's voice had the tiniest smug hint, but it was enough to ruffle the feathers of the Cullens, who didn't miss the insult.

"How nice for you. I cannot say that _dogs_ prove much of a challenge us either." Jasper's voice sliced the air with its perfection. Paul bristled and released a low growl. Sam extended a hand to calm him, he himself shaking marginally more than e had a second ago.

"Paul…" the warning in his voice, plus some message unheard by all save for the pack and Edward, sent Paul back out to my truck to calm down. "We really should be on our way now; we've crossed the lines of the treaty and do not feel that war right now would be the wisest choice."

We turned as a pack (ha ha) to leave the grand house. Esme's melodious voice stopped us though.

"Bella, why don't you stay? It's been so long since we've seen you. Won't you stay?"

By the time Esme finished her speech most of the pack was speechless. Sam looked mildly suspicious but relaxed, and I felt the same relaxation working its way subtly through me. I shot Jasper a look, angry at his trying to sedate me. It didn't seem to be working on Will, though. His shivers had retreated, but he was glaring at Edward, recognizing the unnatural relaxation settling over the pack.

Edward returned his look, yet again, but this time with a slight smug smile on his flawless lips.

I felt the beginnings of hate begin in the bottom of my heart.

"Sure," I found myself saying this despite Will's anger. Will gave me a look, desperate for a millisecond before his showed off his ability to act. He smiled gently and leaned down as the rest of the pack filtered out, in front of the Cullens, and kissed me briefly on the lips. I'm sure this must have hurt Edward and possibly the others seeing as how I'd always been "Edward's" in their eyes. But I didn't see them. IT was usually difficult to focus on anything outside of Will and his dark, full lips when he kissed me.

"Call when you need a ride sweetheart, we'll take the truck if that's alright." He smiled again, his face still seeming relaxed. I knew it well enough to see the fury raging behind the slight tilt of his head and his polite-yet-affectionate tone.

I mustered my strength to mimic his perfectly hidden rage.

"Of course, Will." I turned as he walked past me out the door. I caught the slight twitch of his lips as he laughed inwardly at this charade. "Bye! Miss you!"

He turned around while walking, blew me a kiss, and continued walking. I waved daintily before closing the door and turning to the Cullens. There was nothing different about them, except that Rosalie and Emmet had vanished upstairs and Jasper with them.

Alice looked like she was half-way ready to laugh.

I saw her and broke into a smile. While I was still mad at Edward I had never had anything against them. Alice stood, as unable to repress our deep-sown friendship as I was it seemed, and opened her arms. I ran to her and we embraced, laughing.

My laughing died as the air was crushed out of me.

"Alice…" I gasped, and she released me. Carlisle and Esme had relaxed too, by this point, and rose to greet me. We shook hands; I was still not quite forgiven for rejecting their child for a werewolf.

"Oh Bella," Alice breathed, looking up at me and scrunching her nose as she spoke, "You absolutely reek."

I laughed at this, and Edward looked up at the sound. I ignored him for now.

"C'mon, let's get you cleaned up so you don't reek of wolf." Alice began to tow me upstairs but my protests halted her. And Carlisle's and Esme's laughter at the sight.

"Alice! I don't smell"

"**Yes**, Bella, actually you really do."

"No, Alice! Don you- fine." I sighed, giving up. There didn't seem to be a point fighting with someone I'd waited so long to see again.

In an instant I was upstairs, Alice tossing me a towel and explaining how not to break her fancy bath. The basin was immense, black marble with a wall of fogged windows looking out over the forest. I wasn't entirely sure where the water came from, but Alice summoned it up somehow when I failed and soon I had sunk into the hot water, wincing slightly before I adjusted.

I sighed, content for the moment before beginning to turn my current situation over and over in my head, wondering what I should do…

I slipped gently under the water, my long dark hair floating up around me in the clear water. The warmth made me forget all these worries, for the moment, and allowed me to let my mind drift to pleasanter topics.

Half an hour or so later I walked into Alice's bedroom, my skin dry and my hair hanging low in its dampness. I was wrapped in a towel, and was hoping to find my clothes in here.

All I found though was Alice. Sitting on her absurdly huge bed, a different outfit laid out beside her.

I was afraid to look.

It looked like something from Urban Outfitters, only with $200.00 jeans and a tight-ish hoodie with little bat wings on the back.

"So what, I'm like a clothing vampire now?

Alice laughed.

"No that position is still mine. This is just something I…found. A few minutes ago when I went shopping while you were in the tub."

"What was wrong with my other things, Alice?" she heard the underlying warning in my voice and changed the subject expertly.

"Nothing at all. Edward is downstairs."

At the mention of his name my face fell.

"Alice," I whispered. I didn't want them to argue my decision; they couldn't possibly understand.

"What?" Alice asked, looking slightly frustrated. "Just because you're dating someone else you suddenly can't talk to him? Bella…."

"Alice," my voice was sharper now, breathing heavier. I really didn't want to re-open wounds I'd spent so long healing. And this desperation to stay whole, not confused and terrified of love, made my voice harsher than it needed to be. "Alice, don't talk to me about whether or not it's _fair_ to ignore that… man. Just-"

"Bella, stop worrying." Jasper was here. I felt relief course through me. He, of all people, would get not to try talking about it just yet. Things clicked for Alice too in that moment, and she dropped it.

Walking down the steps at a human pace was an odd new sensation for me. I caught a glimpse of Jasper smiling as he felt this but none of us spoke. Only Edward was in the living room (yes, it was still a living room despite its hugeness) sitting at the piano, staring blankly out the back window/wall. I tweak of pity led me over to stand behind him at the piano, its grand appearance still blowing me away.

"Bella." He greeted me without turning around. I sighed in frustration, my eyebrows coming together slightly.

"What's the matter, Edward?" I felt bad at the clear undertone of annoyance in my voice, but it couldn't be helped. He needed to grow up and _act_ like he was 105 dangit!

"Bella," Alice drew me quickly away, leaving Edward alone on the piano bench. Esme was in the kitchen, micro-waving a cup of hot cocoa.

When she offered it to me I took it and hopped up onto a stool, sop I could sit and take what I knew was coming.

"Oh Bella, I…."

"Just say it Esme for God's sake. I don't know why everyone is all emotional. It's just Edward's little pet…" she looked over at me and observed the tiny back wings on my hoodie, "bat having a fight. Soon enough it will all blow over and batty will come home to papa."

Rosalie's rant was _amazingly_ blunt, but it got across what I think was on everyone's mind.

But it didn't save Rosalie from my pissed-off response. I was tired of the Cullens acting like it was okay for this… vampire to act so immature. Really, it was getting a little old.

"Rosalie," I started, my eyebrows pulling together. I know it seemed like I had been doing a lot of this, this angry comeback thing, recently. And I had. While loving Will, he had taught me the art of knowing when it was okay to snap back at people and how. IT was a very useful thing, in truth. Although I don't think the Cullens were so happy with my new skill in that moment. "I would greatly appreciate it if you wouldn't be so tenaciously ignorant to the feelings of those you don't care about. I'm sorry if I offend you, this is just what I feel."

I said all this very carefully, as advised by Will. Anything else could end with me having my neck snapped off. In retrospect most of my current "self" seemed to have been molded by Will. Immediately I rejected that thought. As much as I loved him, I didn't want anyone to be that… in charge of me, for lack of a better term.

Rosalie looked coldly shocked, and not at all pleased. Alice looked like she didn't know what do to. Esme looked shocked and disappointed.

In me.

In hindsight, there were many things I could have done better. I could have apologized and walked over and apologized to Esme, turned and smiled awkwardly at Alice. I could have run out and hid my face in Edward, hiding from them and returning to the one place I'd never belong.

But I didn't.

I turned from them then, giving a very frustrated sigh and eye roll. My moon bots, curtsey of Alice, carried me out of the kitchen. I broke into a run when I hit the living room. I tripped of course, and didn't hit the floor.

Of course.

I looked up into the curiously polite eyes of Edward. I wasn't quite that slow though, still being able to read the ache behind them. And the curiosity at my anger.

"Can I borrow your cell phone?" I asked angrily almost before he'd set me upright. I didn't miss that he held me a moment longer than necessary, but it wasn't worth confronting him with it. Edward flipped his cell phone out of his pocket and open before I could blink. Angrily, I pounded Will's house number in.

Maria picked up.

After a second, an angry second for me, a confused second for her, she agreed to get someone to drive my truck over.

I stomped to the front porch with Edward close behind. Sitting down with absolutely no grace I proceeded to wait.

I hate waiting. I always have and I always will.

Edward moved and sat, sickeningly full of grace as always, next to me. He was wise enough still not to talk to me, or sit within a yard.

And thus we were, sitting, each waiting for something.

Five painfully slow minutes passed.

And Will pulled up in my car.

Will.

You'd think that of all people I'd be happy to see him. And I was, in a way. But at the moment I was too aggravated to fully appreciate the grace with which he moved towards us, offering a hand to help me up.

I smacked his hand away and rose unsteadily, trusting my balance for once. We walked to the car without a word to Edward, got in, and drove away. My irritation-turned-fury charring the branches of trees that brushed past my window.

**Yay! Now Bella's an angry teenager just like us! Wee!**

**OK sorry again just... Yes. Twas just time to piss off some Mary-Sue lovers is all.**


	10. Edward's POV

**Edward's perspective! Woo!**

**Yet another disclaimer: I didn't write Twilight. I'm not Stephanie Meyer. Nor am I William Chatner. Surprise surprise.**

**Also, just because for some reason I can't edit these things after they're posted, I would just like to say that where I type item in the poll question 4 thing, I meant to say time.**

I watched Bella pull away with a surge of dislike for her truck. Where it failed to go over 50 miles per hour it succeeded in taking the one thing I needed away from me.

Her.

Bella.

Our reunion had gone terribly, to say the least.

After seven months, two weeks, four days and thirteen hours of not seeing her, that certainly wasn't how I had imagined it. Or had I. I certainly hadn't expected her love me, but I hadn't ever thought she might hate me the way she seemed to now. And to love someone else at the same time…

A lump rose in my throat. I swallowed to get rid of the feeling, but it didn't seem to be going away.

I rose with an unhappy sigh. Nothing was going as it should. Bella was absurdly happy in an obscenely short amount of time, and with a _werewolf_ no less.

Moving inside I heard the thoughts of my family, Esme, Alice, and Rosalie's' coming in strongest because of their proximity to me.

_How dare she! What a stupid little girl. She's even more a fool to insult a known vampire like that, what the hell? If only…_ Rosalie's thoughts were only to be expected.

_How odd, and Bella was such a sweet thing. Oh, poor Edward, he must just be so upset to lose her to a werewolf like that…._Esme's thoughts were compassionate, as always. I was almost surprised to hear Alice's though.

_Edward, why oh why did you even drag us away from her in the first place? Don't go looking to blame me for not seeing it or Bella for loving him because this one, little brother, is on you._

I didn't feel it was necessary to remind her that I was older than her.

Moving out to the back I crossed the river in a single bound. I found Emmet and Jasper, loitering, avoiding the conflicts that came with fights between Bella, myself, and now a pack of dogs. In that order of importance.

Emmet looked up while Jasper continued to study the river flowing past.

**I will leave their thoughts to you imaginations!**

"Wow Edward, Bella's insane." Emmet had always had a way with words.

I glared swiftly at him before looking over at Jasper.

"Jasper, some help. Explain Bella please." I was annoyed that anyone but Bella should ever have to explain her to me, but what other choice had I?

Jasper easily could have told me it his thoughts, but brotherly connections, such as compassion for Emmett's not being able to hear thoughts, forced him to say it aloud.

"Isabella is very, very angry with us. And pissed at you. And upset with herself, and lonely." Jasper paused, his voice growing quieter. "Bella also seems to just be angry in general, it's hard to see what's actually going on in her head. These are all guesses of course." Jasper paused, considering whether or not to add something. He didn't have to. His mind spoke loud enough for him.

_And love. She is in love with the dog, this… Will…_

My brows pulled together. Not in frustration, in pain. I had to run from my brothers then, not having the courage to let them see me when I broke down like this. I hid myself in the ball field, where a little over a year ago I'd brought Bella.

When everything was perfect.

Not everything, of course, was right. But it was still considerably better than what was happening here, now.

Will.

I thought the name with a surge of hate, whirling suddenly to kick the large, three-foot-thick oat I'd been leaning against. The trunk snapped in half with a great tearing sound, then a very long sharp crack. It flew back and knocked a few saplings over.

Will.

I hated that boy with such a passion it was almost hard to believe. The one that took Bella away from any chance of ever, _ever_ even making eye contact for very long with me again. The boy who was, most likely right now, talking with Bella. Hearing her voice and receiving her glorious smile. Who had permission to hold her, and kiss her when the moment was right? Will. To touch her face…

All these blindingly beautiful things involving Bella I would never be able to partake in again.

And it was because of him.

Will, the disgusting dog who had ruined any chance of happiness I might ever have. And, in the process, defiled a most holy creature. Bella was now bound to walk among dogs, the mutts of the supernatural world. Not even worthy of immortality.

How abhorrent.

I heard a heartbeat behind me. I could tell from the pattern of the beats that it wasn't human.

Mountain Lion.

I smiled darkly. Perfect.

The lion roared behind me and I turned slowly, smiling still. I saw the ancient muscles of its long forgotten, saber-toothed ancestors coiling on its back. Preparing to lunge into battle. I hear the soft slide of claws against its paws as it unsheathed its ten deadly daggers. I flexed my hands.

I was going to enjoy this.

The lion roared once more and I roared back, the sounds mingling and setting the forest into motion.

Things fleeing…

We lunged.

The lion was underneath me in an instant, my teeth at its throat. It thrashed, tearing uselessly at my skin, to hard to be bothered by its claws.

Its life elixir flowed into my veins, although I scarcely needed it. I had gone hunting just yesterday, as my now golden eyes gave away.

But I was, as Jasper put it, pissed. Bella with a werewolf.

I lifted my head, the lions blood running down the lower half of my face, my eyes fully dialated and black with the new thirst that drove me. I roared with anger at the thought of her and Will sitting as we once had, Bella on top of him. Her smiling and him glowing with _her_ light.

With another snarl I sunk my teeth again into the jugular of the now stilled lion.

I rose, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand and shaking my head to draw my humanity back in around me. I imagined how light my eyes would be now Bella had always loved my eyes. Now I supposed she loved his eyes. The jealously surged through me again, irrational and strong.

I left the lion's body where if was. With a final glance down at the gory carcass, I flashed away, back to shower and do what I could to get

Her

Back.

**The Passage Of Time (5 minutes)**

I stood before the treaty line, waiting for my date to arrive. I had arranged a rendezvous with a pack member, ulterior motives polluting the air.

A sound came from the woods on the other side of the line. In another instant a werewolf burst through the line of trees, its black-graphite fur gleaming dimly in the muted sunlight of Forks.

Will stopped in front of the line, not bothering to phase back. I presumed Bella had told him about me, and most likely the rest of my family. It disturbed me how she seemed to confide in him more than she'd ever done with myself.

_Vampire…_ his thoughts came in to my head clearly, despite his grotesque form.

"I think we need to talk."

_So do I, as you can tell._

We both smiled grimly, although the gesture on him was more of a crinkling or the muzzle. The human I saw in his thoughts, bound inside that body, was smiling just as tensely and expectantly as myself.


	11. Chapter 11

**Aannnnd we're back with Bella's perspective. **

**I own it not. (Twilight)**

I was lying, flat on my back on my blanket in the front lawn. The sun was out today so I'd decided to set up camp on the front lawn and enjoy it while I could. I had hoped it would calm me down but it didn't seem to be doing much other than blind me.

I heard a slight growl and sat up to see Will's wolf form limping through the woods towards me. He limped out of the trees and fell with a very heavy thud to the grass of my front lawn.

His ear was bleeding, and his left forepaw didn't seem to be facing the right was. I could see a bleeding wound on his back.

Worried at his wounds, my anger at the world forgotten for a moment, I moved quickly over to him, lifting his head to put it in my lap.

"Oh, Will..." I smoothed the dark graphite fur of his face. His big black eyes flicked open and looked up at me. A tongue flicked out and licked the hand that was over his large wolf nose. I was surprised to see his muzzle crinkle in the familiar way that I knew meant he was smiling. My brows pulled together, in confusion and slight irritation. How could he be so cocky when he was so injured?

As I frowned worriedly down at him he started shaking, shimmering back into his human shape. I grabbed the blanket to hide his shame, and by the time he was human he was mostly unconscious on my lawn, his head still cradled in my lap. I ran my hand through his dark, silky-but-thick-and-naturally-spiky hair. My other hand brushed the blood away from his ear, the wound already beginning to heal and fade.

"What happened?"

His words were a sigh.

"I met with your ex."

Edward.

"He did this to you? Will, how could you be so slow as to meet with him?" I was angry now, at Edward for doing this and Will for _his_ share of the testosterone poisoning.

Will smiled, although it was coupled with a tiny wince. I saw him reach over and snap his wrist back up, as if it had merely been sprained or twisted rather than broken. It was always amazing, watching them heal that quickly.

"Totally worth it."

**Back at the Cullen's…**

I winced as I opened the door, the dogs teeth having done their work well to slice open my right forearm and hand. Alice and Emmett, the only ones still at home, flashed to the door at the sound of this slow entry, gasping as they saw my wounds.

"Edward!"

Alice's voice came loud and clear, emphasis on the loud. Emmett looked shocked, as was proven by his tone as he asked

"What the hell happened to you?"

I smiled, wincing as the open wound along the side of my face flared with pain.

"My rendezvous with… Will went…"

"Badly if you ask me." Alice and Emmett were following me closely as I walked carefully, not wanting to irritate any of my injuries, at a human pace to the couch. With a relieved sigh I fell onto the couch, face down. I knew I was bleeding, slowly but surely, into the white French fabric but I didn't care.

"Was it really that important, Edward, to get in a fight with Bella's new lover?"

Her words stung worse than my already-healing wounds, and I turned my head to look up at her for once. I smiled, the cut on my face already stitching itself back together.

"It was… worth every cut. Every broken bone, to be able to fight that... dog…"

I was smiling but I still my topaz eyes were as hard an unfriendly as ice.

"You are a fool Edward Cullen. "

"I didn't even know we could _get_ black eyes."

Emmett's words were not helpful.

I knew Alice just loved me, was just worried that a dog could be strong enough to damage a vampire as powerful as myself. That thought, coupled with Alice's assessment of the dog being Bella's new lover, made me close my eyes in pain, not wanting to face the world just yet.

Is this what she felt like when I'd left?

I didn't know, and most likely never would.

Rolling over again I let myself focus on nothing but the healing, my white skin pulling itself together again.

If only I could do that too.

**Where Chapter 10 left off**

I didn't bother to phase back into a human form, not for this. This… leech that stood before me. Pale and perfect. The wind playing with his absurdly lovely bronze hair.

I might have appreciated his appearance more, had I been either bi or homosexual, but I wasn't so that compassion stayed alien to me. Instead of all his perfection I saw something very different.

Dark. A disgusting little thing, twisted inward, concerned only with its own happiness not even noticing when it broke the heart of an extraordinarily wonderful girl.

Bella.

She was why I was here, in a sense. The possessiveness I'd felt for her when the leech first intruded on us kissing in _its_ (I refused to acknowledge the leech's gender)hallway had refused to fade when it stared at me with such hate the other day.

The other leeches had been acceptable, if leeches ever could be. The tiny black-haired one had looked like she (I was not above acknowledging the gender of one of Bella's "friends") was on the verge of laughter at Bella's and mine's performance in front of the other Cullens.

But we can reminisce later, dear reader. For now I have a showdown to tell you about.

We were still smiling, bound to different sides of the same line.

_Why do you want to talk, leech?_

"I want to discuss Bella."

_Mine. Now, at least. It's called love, look it up if you don't know the meaning of the word._

"Of course I know the meaning of the word, fool pup! I _defined_ love when I was with Bella."

_By leaving her? Nice._

"Idiot!" he growled, growing angry at these simple jests. He heard that thought in my mind and immediately calmed himself, down, to my disappointment. "You know little do not presume to know me."

_I know you loved her and then lost interest, leaving her empty and up for the taking. But who wants a shell, the scraps leftover from your feast?_

"What a way with words you have, little pup. Now I see the light."

_This is growing vicious. Say what you need to say or fight._

The leech sighed, his disturbing smell even drifting over to me, making my stomach curdle. Disgusting.

"I was Bella's first love, and I will be her last. You are not going to win her, I am. You will not be the one to walk her through her _mortal,_" Ah yes. Bella'd mentioned something about him not wanting to turn her, "life. You, dog, will never be able to be for her what I was, and always will be." He cocked an eyebrow towards the end, challenging me.

My hackles rose with my fury, the dark-silver fur bristling.

_As true as that may be, you are still no longer with her. You still left her, and I am still the love of her life. I spent the other night entirely with her, watching her sleep, inhaling her flawless fragrance. Something you will never be able to do again. Don't talk to me about ultimatums, _**vampire**_. Especially when you know that in the end, all there will be is Bella, and myself._

_Not._

_You._

I probably shouldn't have let his words infuriate me like that, I probably should have just smirked and turned around and run back to where Bella was at my house making brownies with Maria.

But I didn't.

When the leech roared in fury and lunged at me, I met him in midair, releasing a roar to rival his.

In an instant we were locked, my forepaws slashing at his granite skin, the razor incisors of my huge wolf mouth parted, lunging for his face. The leech roared again and his fist slammed into my forepaw repeatedly and I felt the bones beginning to crack. With another roar I threw him back, righting myself onto all four paws. We lunged at each other again, both of furious beyond reason.

I would love to tell you that I was blinded by love, that the red haze clogging my vision and probably the leech's was forged of deep affection for Bella. But it wasn't. Most likely it was our spiked testosterone levels, only partially love, and a hell of a lot of jealously.

In the end we each limped wearily away from the scene of battle, unable to fight any longer. The mind was willing but the flesh was weak and bruised.

You may think I was insane for engaging in battle with a leech, but I don't really care. No matter how much he kicked my butt (yes, by this point in time I had to acknowledge his gender and the fact that we damaged each other… equally) I will never regret fighting. I did it for pride. I did it for jealousy. And I did it for her.

Bella, my love…

Completely worth it.

**R&R anyone reading R&R. I will update tomorrow, I promise.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Okay…where were we… In the last chapter we learned that both Will and Edward have teeth, literally and figuratively.**

**Imagine that.**

**Disclaimer: No tengo Twilight. Sra. Meyer tiene el libro.  
**

**Or should I say: Yo no creo Twilight. Idk. **

I was still mad at Will, but not mad enough to stop calling him, stop being friends with him, stop loving him.

I was also mad at Edward, who had once again proven his inability to make decisions that weren't selfishly based. I (as planning on going over and yelling at him sometime soon, but between work and school and Will, there really didn't seem to be enough time.

At the moment I was at work, standing behind the counter, ringing up a pair of snowshoes for one of our more serious customers. I was just handing them their bagged product when Will came in, looking bored at first before he spotted me. A small smile lit his features and he strode over, ignoring the few people in line. Leaning against the counter just past the register he started playing with those little magnetic figurines that seemed to come in outdoor-goods stores.

"Hey." I said smiling.

Will turned around so he was leaning towards me over the counter, his elbows planted in front of him while his long, dark hands were working on making the tiny magnetic monkey-person climb the tiny Empire States Building. He looked briefly up at me and smiled.

"Hey."

"So… What's up? Why are you here?"

Will looked up at me, this time maintaining eye contact for more than a second.

Black eyes held brown for a moment before Will started speaking.

"The pack got Victoria."

I sucked in my breath, anxious for the rest. I hoped no one had gotten hurt.

"And?"

"And now no Victoria. The red-headed menace is finally gone."

I smiled in relief. Why was Will still looking antsy though?

"What's wrong?"

"We met the Cullens while taking care of it." He got the look I gave him and corrected himself, "Of _her_. They invited us… to a meeting."

I frowned.

"A family of…" I looked around. "Irish people would invite a pack of….Italians over to dinner?" This wasn't making sense on any level.

"Well…" Will was looking even more uncomfortable now. I set myself up for shock, "they didn't invite _us_ so much as…. Us… The you and me us."

This made even less sense. I frowned deeper, not understanding. My brow crinkled as I tried to figure it out. Will laughed slightly, and reached out to smooth the line between my eyebrows out.

I looked up at him, worried suddenly for the sake of "us." Bad things had been happening recently, and "us" had seemed like the only safe place. The only place where everything was going to be all right. Who knew what the Cullens were planning with this… dinner. Who knew if they were going to try to shatter "us". All I knew was that if they ddid I wouldn't be able to handle it, and then things would be even worse than when Edward left in the first place.

"I'm taking a break," I said suddenly, over my shoulder to Mike restocking the shelves behind the counter. Hurrying around the register I wen touside and to the parking lot, leaning against my truck. I ran my hands through my hair, sighgin in frustration. What was I going to do now?

"We're going, right?" Will's voice forced my eyes open, and up into his black ones. There was something in them that I was missing.

"What?"

"Well, they invited us. It would be rude to just turn them down like that."

…

"Will, since when have _you_ cared for the feelings of vampires?" I was suspicious now. What was I not getting here?

"Oh c'mon Bella, why not?"

This was a good question, not matter what the intentions behind them might be.

"Well…. I don't trust them, Will."

And it was the truth. I didn't trust these vampires who had been so closed-minded towards my chosen way of life and love. I hated Edward now after what he'd done almost as much as I'd once loved him. And Rosalie…

I just had too many reasons to want to not see them.

I voiced this thought to Will who seemed to weigh it.

"Why don't we set the rules for it? Only…the large leech and the tiny female one. And perhaps the tiny one's mate." I smiled at his names for Emmett, Alice, and Jasper.

I added one final condition.

"**And** we meet in a public arena, no ambushes or afore-planned jumping of any kind."

Will restrained a smile at my abuse of slang.

"Good. We'll let them no tonight. Can I come over later and we'll let them know via speakerphone?" As he spoke he moved closer to me, his arms winding around my waist. I smiled up at him.

"Sure. 4:00 good?"

Will's only answer was a smile, a nod, and him leaning down to kiss me on the lips. I lifted myself on my tiptoes to get closer to him and his mouth, my hands finding their way to his face, holding it to mine.

Our mouths moving against the other, we failed at first to hear the screeching of tires.

The louder it got, though, the harder it got to ignore it. Will was the first to break focus, I myself not quite having that level of self-control. What he saw sent him into immediate action.

Out of his arms I was twirled and behind his back, pressed between him and the truck as I began to recognize his new posture. He was protecting me from something. I looked up to see Emmett's monster Jeep and sighed.

Them again.

Emmett and Alice moved out of the car at human speed, clearly not risking it even in a mostly empty parking lot. I could see Edward in the passenger seat, glaring at Will. I looked up to see Will first glaring at him, and then turning his attention to the two approaching vampires. I felt a shudder roll through him, and wondered at the wisdom of being trapped against him if he was planning on transforming.

Alice and Emmett looked coldly neutral as they strode over to us, stopping a relatively intimate six feet from us.

Progress.

Alice was the first to speak, and by her tone and Emmett's attitude towards me I wasn't completely forgiven for my little outburst towards Rosalie.

"Bella. We're here to invite you to dine with us."

"You don't eat."

They were going to decide to be sneaky, concealing something form me like this, I was going to be blunt.

"No but you do and from what I remember of being human it's a pretty good way to socialize."

Emmett's words drew a laugh from Will, who made no attempt to cover it with a cough.

Emmett gave him a look as I said, with laughter in my voice,

"So… we're friends now? Again, I mean…"

Alice actually cracked a smile at my next words.

"I mean I thought with the whole telling Rosalie off thing you wouldn't want to be friends.." That plus braking up with their brother, but saying that seemed just a little bit petty to me. Also he could probably hear me. I shot the subject of these thoughts a look, and noticed that he had a very faint scar down his perfect cheekbone. I looked quickly back at Will who had a similar wound, only a pale line on his ear tracing down to the corner of his jaw. He had moved to stand along side me, one arm wrapped around my waist, holding me to him.

How stupid boys could be.

But I was towed back to the present by what Emmett was saying.

"Yeah, well. You've always been part of the family. It would take more than getting angry at Rosalie to get us to hate you." He smiled at me and I smiled back, happy to be acknowledged.

"So," Alice was talking again, "Come to our house for dinner? Edward will be cooking and from what you told us before he's an excellent cook." Will glanced down at me momentarily but I ignored him for once. That particular alleyway of memory lane could wait till another day.

"I'm sure Will cooks for you now." Alice's voice was still polite, but had a new, subtle edge to it that I was sure Will didn't miss.

Apparently it couldn't wait.

"Naw," Will's voice was happy, loose. He was good, very good. "I just order Thai."

I smiled up at him and he leaned down to peck me quickly on the lips. I flushed, looking back to Alice and Emmett, who were not pleased by this. I divulged from their expressions that they were not pleased at how well he had taken their little barb. I could see Edward glaring, even more furious now. His lips were moving quickly, blurring in their speed. Emmett and Alice tilted their heads back, as if he were merely whispering. I thought I saw Will's mouth tilt upwards in a secret smile, but I'm not sure.

It was infuriating, this not knowing what was happening around me. I cleared my throat, but Alice and Emmett seemed to be having an in depth conversation with Edward using only their minds. Also infuriating.

When they failed to admit I was still standing there with Will, waiting for the rest of the conversation, I turned. Will opened the door or me and I slid across the seat to the wheel. He shut the door behind me, moving around to the other side to sit shotgun. When his door slammed shut all three looked back up. My truck was roaring to life when Alice shouted at me,

"Wait! You'll come, right?"

Will leaned out the window and I could see him preparing a quick, vicious response but cut in before he could. I nodded and balled up all of my fingers except for my thumb and pinkie. I held that hand up to my ear and mouthed, 'Call me.' Alice nodded and Emmett started their car again.

Will and I rode in silence for a few moments before he said,

"Don't you still have work?"

**Yes. Revel in the little things we miss while wrapped up in the important things, like whether or not to go over to your ex's house for dinner when he's a vampire who may or may not be plotting to kill your current love.**

**R&R. -**


	13. Chapter 13

**Still not Stephanie Meyers (Meyer?) or William Chatner.**

**And hopefully I never will be. **

**OK people I have new on the poll front.**

**#2 is winning, people! What is that crap? Vote my readers! Vote like the wind! But please only once per person/robot if that is the case.**

**Whatever one wins, I shall still be making a condensed version called The Graphite Wolf the I shall publish after I'm done with this one.**

**Read!**

Will was leaning against the kitchen counter, watching me slam pots and pans down in the sink as I cleaned them, showing how upset I was.

"It's not that bad, you know."

I looked up at him, still pissed.

"Are you kidding me? You're supposed to be all protective and crap. Now I get invited to their house in two weeks, giving them more than enough time to plan something terrible that will probably lead bad places for 'us', and you're all:" I made my voice several octaves lower than it was, imitating Will's deep timbre. "It's fine Bella, I'm not going to smell the danger even though this whole thing **reeks of it** Now go on, shoo before you live a safe, happy life with me!"

I realized I was growing hysterical, but still didn't pause for breath until Will, faster than a normal person might have believed possible, was around the counter. With his hands on my shoulders, Will hooked me into his eyes in that cheating way that always distracted me.

"Bella, it'll be alright. No matter what they do, nothing could tear us apart except maybe you if you felt like it. And if that happens I'll just sing you a Coldplay song or something equally pathetic to get you back." He gave me a broad smile, showing all his teeth, the one sided dimple getting to me yet again. I found I was starting to smile to, the worry quickly leaving my conscious mind. "So don't worry about it. Whatever's coming, we'll be ready. You'll see, our story has a very…happy…ending…"

He kissed me then, under the fifty-watt glow of the light over the kitchen, with the still-damp pots and pans in my hands, the smell of dish soap still fresh on me. I dropped the pans with a loud, metallic clang as my arms, for the second time that day, wrapped around Will. I let my hands wander up his back to run through his silken black hair, still thick because he'd refused to shave it off when he first became a wolf.

I felt the edge of the counter touch my back and I realized Will had pushed me back, hands still on my shoulders. Said hands glided to the skin of the base of my neck, one moving upwards to cup my face in its long, russet fingers. Will pulled his head back to kiss my eyelids, then my forehead and down from there to my mouth again. I kissed his hand, lifting it from my throat.

Love filled me up, and I found soon that I was floating, or it felt like it.

Will's hand moved up to brush my hair back from my face, going as far as to push it off my neck so he could kiss me there. My arms wrapped around him and held him to me, the palms of my hands flat against his back. Under my pals I felt the leopard muscles of his back moved as he moved his head in a rhythm to the way his mouth moved, the rhythm of my hopelessly in love heart.

That was one distinct difference, besides the species thing, between Will and Edward. One had the ability to love me fully, without question, and the there as always holding back, always hiding things from me for my own good. As very much as I'd loved Edward, as much as I still did, I couldn't bear it anymore. Being with someone who had the nerve to say they loved me but not even ask me about decisions concerning my life, my very mortality.

I knew, very well, that Will had his faults. Everyone does. I wasn't so blind as I'd been before to not be able to think coherently about someone's "faults."

But, for the moment, such trivial things as Edward were cast aside for I felt Will's hands slipping under my shirt to brush the small of my back. They didn't dare journey higher, which was probably a good idea considering the sound of the cruiser's wheels squealed against the brick driveway just then.

Will released me in an instant, running his hands through his hand to smooth it back to its odd, soft, natural spike, tugging his shirt back down. I too pulled me shirt down and flipped my hair back around my shoulder, flushing deeply.

Will was leaning against the counter, arms folded, breathing slowed to an almost normal regularity, when Charlie entered. He greeted "Chief Swan" briefly, smiling and nodding politely yet distantly at the equally polite questions Charlie asked of him, and of us. I was still flushed, not looking at my father, waiting for the rose to fade from my cheeks.

I hoped he wouldn't notice.

"Why are you blushing, Bells?"

I had hoped in vain.

"Well…" I scrambled for a legible excuse that wouldn't get Will tasered. "I was just…"

"Hmm?" Charlie had turned around, hanging his coat up in the closet.

"I was just discussing with Will what would happen if I tried ballet."

Random, yes. Legible, let's hope.

Charlie looked stunned for a moment before bursting into laughter.

"Bells, you have the oddest mind sometimes." He looked over to Will who was still looking polite, but I could see had a flicker of stunned relief deep in his black eyes. He caught my gaze and arched his eyebrows. I blushed even deeper.

I was learning now why my mother had never had to purchase blush.

"Doesn't she, William?" he elbowed Will in the ribcage, or what was supposed to be his ribcage. Will was considerably taller than Charlie. I think he was even a little taller than

Edward.

"She certainly does, Chief Swan."

After Edward had left me, Charlie didn't seem to be willing to give out first-name-calling grounds to any male anywhere near my age that happened to come over. Will happened to come over quite a bit, so I wondered how much longer it would be until he let him refer to him as Charlie.

After Charlie had swigged a Pepsi®, he said.

"Well. I'm bushed. Tell William goodnight and head to bed Bella."

With that Charlie was gone with the wind.

The wind that creaks its way up old stairs and slams its bedroom door after itself.

Will looked over at me and repressed his laughter. The flush rose once more in my cheeks. I cracked the towel I was using to dry the dishes at him.

"Shut up, Will."

"Anything for the ballerina." He was now attempting to choke his laughter back with his fist. I knew that soon I would be laughing too; I could feel it rising in me like bubbles of champagne.

"Will!" I hissed, not wanting to wake my father up, although I was positive he was pressed to the floor of his bedroom, listening for me to say goodnight.

I motioned to the door, saying loudly, but not too loudly, "Well, thanks for visiting Will, see you soon." I stomped over to the door and Will followed suit, standing behind the door as I opened it and shouted outwards, "Bye! See you tomorrow, maybe!"

Slamming the door I stomped past the still snickering Will and up the stairs, not bothering to hide my passage.

I closed the door to my bedroom, and turned around, still smiling and trying too hard not to laugh, to see Edward.

Edward.

Here,

In my room.

Here.

With Will somewhere else, somewhere not here.

Edward.

Panic shot through my mind, leaving a smoking trail of worry behind it. Where was Will? Why wasn't he here? What was holding him up and would they hurt him? Why on earth was Edward here, sitting in my rocking chair, waiting politely?

I opened my mouth to speak but Edward beat me to the chase.

"Will is fine, don't look at me like that Bella."

My eyes narrowed. So what did he want?

I voiced this thought, not caring for tact now, my anger for pounding on Will like that not quite faded.

"What do you want, Edward?"

"Besides you? Nothing really."

I ignored this, although a tiny part of me quaked with pity. But it was a very small fraction of my self, and I pushed it back.

"Then why did you hurt Will?"

Edward released a short, rather tense, laugh.

"If you hadn't noticed, Bella, he did his fair share of damage to me as well." Edward raised one long white hand to trace the scar marring his perfect face. It was ever paler than he was.

"Edward…" I sighed his name in frustration and sat heavily on my bed. He was supposed to be one hundred and five years old, not twelve.

"And he started it! It wasn't all me…"

Edward was glaring now, angry that I would side with Will on so little evidence. But this was even more childlike, surprising coming from him. Very surprising. That was probably why my voice was harsher than it needed to be. That plus it was late and Will was nowhere to be found, possibly off being held captive by those I had loved.

"Edward I thought you were one hundred and five years old not twelve!"

Now we were both glaring at each other across the small space provided by my room. We maintained this glare for a moment more before sighing and looking away.

"What do you want, Edward? And don't say me because I'm taken."

I caught the flicker of pain in his eyes at my words but he kept his cool. His next sentence surprised me, though.

"I just wanted to talk to you without that…dog…" he growled the word, "here to interrupt us."

"You've interrupted us." I countered, immediately regretting it. Edwards face began to fold with the agony of seeing me so…close with another love. As furious as I was at him I still didn't want to hurt him. That badly at least.

Or did I?

"Not to mention pounding on Will. That didn't seem to be the most social gesture you could've made, but now I begin to see that all this," I drew a circle in the air with a flutter of my hand, "is just _you're_ way of saying: I love you Bella, let's be best friends because I respect your boundaries!" Again I imitated another's voice, dropping mine and making it as musical as I could manage.

At first I thought that Edward would be crying if he could've been, perhaps at my feet, begging to be forgiven. But this emotion was quickly drowned in a self-righteous anger I blamed myself in that moment for teaching him.

"Bella, you-"

Edward was struggled wth his words, I raised my eyebrows at him.

"Yes?"

"You're ju-"

But he choked his words back yet again, seeming to think better of it.

"Never mind. I just came to ask if you were coming in two weeks."

"Of course."

My voice was ice. I still didn't trust them.

Edward relaxed at my words, almost smiling. His voice was quieter now, calmed and contented.

"Good. Just…good."

He rose, moving fluidly to the window. He turned to look back at me, still sitting on my bed, and smiled.

He was the most beautiful person I'd ever seen.

OH yes, Will was also excruciatingly perfect. But in that moment Edward's beauty stunned me. I smiled back, a reflex, but by then Edward was gone.

And I had other worries.

Like Will.

Carefully, I climbed off my bed and over to the door, inching it open and moving as quietly as I could down the stairs, not wanting to wake Charlie. If he knew how many males I'd had in his house just within this night he would have had a seizure.

I tiptoed over to the phone. Lifting it carefully off the hook, I moved into the living room and dialed Sam's number, knowing how soundly Maria slept.

Emily picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Emily, hey, it's me."

"Oh. Hey Bella, why are you calling?" Her voice was sleepy, and I thought I heard her stifle a yawn.

"Will's gone." I could keep the worry from my voice even less than she could keep the sleep from hers.

"Oh yeah. "Why wasn't she worried, "Sam left about fifteen minutes ago to go yank the pack out of whatever they were doing for a meeting. Apparently he's concerned for your dinner date in two weeks."

"Oh."

"Yeah, well… See you tomorrow? I'll be making cookies?"

"Nah I think I'm on for cookie-duty with Maria. The girl's insane you know."

Emily laughed, the sound tinkling lightly in my ear.

"Okay. Maybe I'll come over, bring my 'mad skills.' "

It was my turn to laugh now.

"Okay. G'night."

"Night."

We hung up.

It was a relief to know that Will, at least, was unconcerned as to where he was. I was still slightly worried, but this kind of thing seemed to come with the territory of loving someone supernatural.

Exhaustion claimed me then, and I slumped my way up the stairs, just making it to my bed before consciousness slipped away.

**I know this one was long can you ever forgive me?**

**I love rock n' roll… put another dime in the jukebox ba-beh…**

**Sorry. I listen to that when hyper, or just randomly. - It makes me happy.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: I'm not Mrs. Meyer. I didn't make Twilight. I've only made Will. And Cecilia and Hatari. But that's another story. Literally.**

I woke to the morning light pouring through my window. A smile spread slowly across my face as a pleasing sensation washed through me.

Contentment.

I had missed this sensation, these past few days, and its return was more than welcome. Rising, I dressed myself quickly and practically skipped to the kitchen. Even my cereal seemed happier, if that were possible.

I heard a tapping on the back window and skipped, something graceful compared to my normal walk, to the front door.

It was Will. I beamed and yanked pulled the door open. Smiling up at him I watched with pleasure as he started smiling in response. Jumping up slightly on my tiptoes I pecked him on the lips. Will's smile broadened.

"Good morning."

"Morning." Will walked past me into the kitchen. I noticed then the twin tears in the back of his shirt. I reached out, touching the smooth, bared russet skin of his back. As he walked I could see said satin skin moving over his perfect muscles. IF I hadn't known he was 100 werewolf I would have thought he must be part panther, the way he moved and the way his muscles flowed, smoothing then bunching when he paused, twisting on his heel to look at me. The small of his back was perfect, and my hand drifted down to brush it. Will was _really_ paying attention now.

He closed his eyes, tilting his head back. For all we loved each other we never touched, never like this. Teenage terror of the unknown, I suppose. Some had it. Some didn't.

I let my hand drop, breaking the moment. Will's eyes flashed open, and down to mine. He lifted a hand to claim my still-raised one.

"Will, where did you get those cuts in your shirt?"

Will didn't answer at first, merely reaching out his other hand to grab higher on my forearm. He continued reeling me in, hand over hand, until I was pressed up against his chest, head tilted back to see his flawless face, similarly tilted, but downward to see _me_.

After a moment of him holding me, not saying anything, just smiling, I spoke again.

"Are you going to answer the question?"

"Sam."

"_Sam_ scarred you?"

"My shirt."

"Same thing."

Will repressed a smile.

"Yeah, I rebelled and he got all patriarchal on my ass.

I laughed briefly; I was relieved he hadn't gone looking for a certain vampire.

"Why'd you rebel?"

"You.. basically."

"Me? Will, you can't use that as an excuse _every single time_. Like with the clo-"

"That clown got what was coming to him. Whistling at you like that. There were **children** present Bella, think of the children!"

By the end of his tiny rant I was laughing almost too hard to stand, and I let myself go limp, the laughter shaking me now. I was remembering the image of Will dropkicking an overweight clown and then tugging me away quickly as security showed up.

That day at the zoo had been truly odd.

I couldn't even seem to remember exactly how I got there. The hours spent with Will seemed to blur together, like watching a merry-go-round spin past, bright colors, laughter drifting through the air.

And… at the same time, every moment stood out, perfect, undimmed by time, in my mind.

Will snatched me from my thoughts wit his words, deep voice sighing against my eardrum.

"Bella, I love you so much."

Surprised brown eyes flicked up to deep black ones, filled with affection.

I felt a smile spread across my face and stood up again on my tiptoes to kiss Will. He pulled me up, one broad, graceful hand cradling the back of my head, the other moving up and down my back until I was dizzy.

"Will," I breathed, when I pulled away for air. "Don't… Charlie will be home and I _definitely_ can't think of an excuse for this-"

But I was cut off as Will pressed his mouth again over mine, shushing me with the gesture. I would not be shushed.

Pulling myself away again I glared defiantly up at him.

"Will! Don't you shush me you big, fat werewol- Hey when did that happen?"

My voce went from ticked to surprised and mildly puzzled as, when I thumped his chest, I found it to be bare. Hence my question, you see.

As I pondered when said chest nudity might have happened, all the while trying to repress my hormones which threatened to overturn my logical train of thought and force me to tackle Will, Will sighed and snatched his shirt from the floor. Tugging it down over his head I immediately regretted loosing the sight of such silken perfection. He caught my look and smiled, a new look entering his eyes that made me blush.

"Don't worry about it Bella," he leaned to to swiftly kiss me before standing straight and heading for the door, pulling me after him by my hand, "You won't have long to wait to see it again."

Thankfully he was turned and missed the deep shade of maroon I turned, while a smile spread across my face. The bubbles of champagne started rising in me at that thought, which was odd considering they didn't do that unless Will was kissing me. Repressing my unproductive daydreams away, I hopped onto Will's bike after him.

Yes. Bella on a motorcycle. How terrible, someone call her father.

Will and Jacob had found two bikes while rummaging through the town dump. Will says they were in the dump because Victoria had been seen reading something and then tossing it into said dump. I'm not sure I believed them, but it didn't really matter.

At the moment I was most concerned with what _exactly_ Will had meant. A blush rose in my face again at the thought.

_Isn't it obvious?_

_Well, yeah just…_

_Just hold on and stop thinking about it. _

I obeyed the voice in y head and clung tighter to Will. Before I knew it we were at his house, Emily jumping up and down in the front window, waving impatiently.

Will pulled his helmet off his head, dropping it onto the bike and pulling me off with one hand at the same tie. I thudded into his chest, backed up, and started trying to take off my own helmet. I always had trouble with this part.

"Here." Will's hands slid under my jaw to click the little latch-y-thing open. Unfortunately, as he pulled my helmet off, he could clearly see my blush. I saw a smile start on his perfect mouth and stomped past him, trying to maintain some form of immature dignity.

Maria swept the door open for me and slammed it smugly in Will's face.

The pounding wasn't _quite_ loud enough to cover up my laughter.


	15. Chapter 15

**rememberDisclaimer: No. A thousand fiery no's. I am not Stephanie Meyer.**

**Nor William Shatner. Who I found out's name is spelled with an S not a C. Oh the humiliation. **

Emily and Will were currently bickering in the kitchen as I tried to bumble my way through the recipe. It called for orange gratings.

What?

At the moment I was pondering whether or not to use the hammer Will had used to threaten the door with until Maria had opened it for him.

I was just considering using the cheese grater, the wisest of my many choices, when their sibling squabbling entered the kitchen and disrupted all thought.

"Bella, tell him!"

"Leave Bella out of this!"

Maria still turned on me, eyes pleading.

"Tell him, Bella. Tell him my singing is good, that my voice isn't," she turned to Will, "a harsh assault of the senses."

I froze. Boyfriend. Boyfriend's sister.

I weighed my options.

"I think that your voice is your voice: unforgettable."

Maria beamed, the generic one-sided dimple showing up.

"Thank you Bella! At least **someone** here still has a soul!"

"I have a soul!" Will was adorable when he was mad at his sister. At a towering six foot nine or something she was at least two feet shorter than him, but still she dwarfed him when she wanted to. "I just don't use it constantly!"

"No, you keep it in a box under your bed. Right next to your porn pictures of Bella!"

I flushed and Will grew indignant, although I thought I saw a slight blush rise in his cheeks as well.

"Maria you are insane! _I'm_ not the one who was following the mailman around, taking pictures of him!"

"I was six!"

"Evil starts early!"

I could no longer contain my laughter at that point. I let my laughs shake my form, tears of mirth beginning to blur my vision. They both turned to look at me with disbelief. The corners of Will's mouth twitched and in a moment a smile broke across his face.

He strode over to me and wrapped an arm around me to support me as I cackled.

"Maria, now look what you've done." Laughter was in his voice.

"_You're_ the one who started dating her, in a sense this involvement is all _your_ fault!"

"Love is like a caterpillar, it waits for no one."

"That makes no sense!"

"It makes perfect sense!" Will contradicted, lifting an arm from my waist to brush my hair back from my face as he spoke. "It starts out small and confusing, but if given time and warmth," I felt my body heat up as he pulled me closer, "It will turn into something beautiful."

Will kissed me then, lightly, but it still sent a rush of sensation through my body.

"God, get a room. I'm trying to make something here!"

"So am I…" Will whispered before kissing me again. I would've cared about that had not my attention been…otherwise occupied.

"I was talking about cookies!"

Maria started beating Will with a wooden spoon, trying to herd us out of the kitchen before the rating showed up. Will ignored her at first, but when she moved for the pan he drew me out to the living room. He was just leaning me back over the couch when Sam and most of the pack burst in.

Will looked up, bored and mildly irritated.

"What the hell do you want, Sam?"

Okay maybe slightly more than mildly. He was so cute when he was angry at Sam. You could just see the struggle going oninside of him.

Authority.

Bella.

Authority.

Bella.

It was adorable.

Sam ignored us and started speaking.

"Emily needs ice cream."

"Good for Emily she can get that on her own."

"No, she can't. Only you or Bella can go."

"Why not? And why only us?"

"Because," Jared spoke up quietly now, "That way we wont have to hear your thoughts about Bella when you're…socializing while we patrol."

Paul released a bark of laughter and Sam's mouth twitched, Jacob looked embarrassed but amused.

Will was standing fully now, although he hadn't released me. He looked like he was about to say something that I just _knew_ would piss them off. I acted before he could get there.

"Okay fine, I'll go."

I was out the door, squeezing past the pack, before Will could do anything. I looked back over my shoulder and winked, letting him know that it was all right and nothing more than a joke.

I could feel Will's eyes on me as I headed out, and Sam's:

"That's exactly what I'm talking about! God, boy get a…"

The door closed behind me as I walked to my truck. (I'm still not sure how it showed up…)

**Author: Don't ask questions Bella. Just walk.**

It still didn't cover the argument starting up again behind it. I heard the sound of metal on flesh, wincing as Will's voice came.

"Maria! What the…"

I stifled a laugh as I got into my truck and was off, the road moving bumpily underneath my tires.

**Okay the next one will be mildly awkward for those who don't like fluff (It's a therapy scene for Eddie don't ask…) so feel free to just skip ahead of whatever.**

**Free will.**

**Use it.**

**Or don't it's up to you.**


	16. Joyous Therapy

**Disclaimer: I am not Stephanie Meyer and didn't make Twilight.**

**Yeah this one's basically just fluff. It gets dark in a sec so I need this relief.**

**And so do you dear reader, so do you…**

**Read!**

I sat with an impatient sigh in the leather comfy chair. Alice sat across from me in an equally comfortable chair with a clipboard with paper clipped to it and a pen. Not to mention the fake spectacles she'd said "Completed the look."

We were in Carlisle's library, and dust mixed with knowledge perfumed the air.

"Let us begin…"

I was antsy, anxious to be out keeping an eye on Bella. What if the wolf hadn't been able to control himself and he'd hurt her? She was so delicate…

"Focus Edward. We have limited time here."

"Alice, I hardly think we're short on time on any level."

Alice sighed and rolled her eyes.

"No but we do have very little time before you run past me and security,"

"Security" was Jasper standing in front of the immense double doors, looking detached.

"And go off somewhere to stalk Bella."

"It's not stal-"

Alice gave me a look, tilting her head and arching her eyebrows at me. My denial just admitted how insane I'd become recently.

"You're supposed to be a therapist not a sister."

"Shut up and be healed then."

"Make me!"

"Children, we have company." Jasper's voice (among other things) soothed us. Slightly. Alice was still pissed and I was still crazy.

Emmett walked in, all peppy and triumphant. If it had been something about Rosalie I would've fled the library then. Those thoughts could get very awkward at times.

But it wasn't. His thoughts and next words told me so.

"Guess who went to the ice-cream store?"

"We don't eat, Emmett. For the last time..."

"Yeah Edward's amazingly insane over this whole Bella-falling-in-love-again thing, we don't need another insane-o in the house."

I had tackled Jasper in an instant, my hands throttling his neck uselessly.

Jasper looked very uncomfortable, to say the least.

"Edward!"

"**Anyway**," Emmett was trying to draw attention back to him. He didn't like being ignored very much. "No, not me. Bella went to the ice-cream store."

I looked up in a second. "Bella?"

Alice's voice was angered.

"Focus damn you!"

No one seemed to notice Jasper as I throttled him and he clawed at me, slamming me emotionally and with his fists.

Poor Jasper.

**Yes.**

**That was therapy at the Cullen's.  
**

**Now you know why so many therapists went missing, eaten by the crazy vampires who will remain anonymous. You know who you are.**


	17. Chapter 17: XMas Version

It's a funny thing, being handcuffed to your car.

I had been out here for about twenty minutes and already I was tired of it. It wasn't even funny anymore.

Not that it had been originally. Will and Edward getting into a hissy fit over me to the point that Sam and Emily dragged me out here and handcuffed me to their car. I didn't even want to know why they carried handcuffs around with them.

Now I was bored, and wanted to be inside at least where Will and the others were. Neither the vampires or the Cullens had offered to leave, so at the moment they were probably locked in an argument. Probably-

My thoughts were interrupted by the sight of Will walking gracefully towards me.

He was so beautiful.

Especially here, on Christmas, all dressed up. He wore a turtleneck similar to those Edward used to wear, a light, knitted fabric clinging carefully to his perfectly muscled chest. Will's was black, setting off his hair and eyes nicely. He was also wearing long, black, slightly faded with age, jeans. Normally I didn't go for the whole black-jean look but on him it worked.

Very, very well in fact. Even I in my mildly dressed up outfit couldn't rival him, not that it was ever much of a competition anyway.

Will stopped when he reached me, lifting a hand to brush my hair from my face unnecessarily and gently stroke my cheek.

We had long ago given up verbal greetings.

I tried to focus through the haze that came with Will's touch.

"So what brings you out to this cold, lonely little spot? Are we tihnking or maybe unlocking these cuffs and allowing me to go back inside?"

I looked up at Will hopefully, but he dashed my hopes with his wicked expression.

"I don't know, I kind of like how you look. In handcuffs... It's very..." He breathed his words now, one snaking hand that had found its way around my waist pulling me tightly against him, "Very... Nice. Especially in that dress. Did I tell you how amazingly beautiful you are?"

I flushed, struggling even harder to keep from drifting off into the sensations. Although my dress was very nice, dark and green, very long sleeves that covered about half of my hands, and stopping a little past mid thigh. A black belt bound my waist, broad and abnormally fashionable for my normal style. My black silk slippers matching nicely, though even now I doubt the wisdom of wearing slippers in a constantly rainy town. MY legs were left bare, pale in the night. My hair was down, left to be simply straight and silken (Don't ask. It's a long story that involves much conditioner).

"Will, don't..."

"Don't what? Would you really not want me to kiss you if you were standing underneath mistletoe?"

What? "No I'm-" But then I spotted it. Someone had tied it to my truck above the windshield.

Not fair.

Before I could come up with a legitimate excuse out of this, (What about Christmas! My father and most of the town were inside!) Will kissing me.

When I tried to fight him, he held me, one hand pressed into the small of my back.

His other hand found its way to the one of mine that was still chained to the grill. From very far away it seemed, so lost was I in his kisses, I felt his strong fingers wrap gently around my wrist and tug sharply.

The metallic chink of the cuff breaking was barely heard by either of us.

My arms wrapped around his neck and I felt the hard metallic hood against my back and realized that Will had laid me back on the hood, careful not to crush me.

I didn't care.

In retrospect I most likely shouldn't have been making out on the hood of a (my) truck int he middle of a parking lot with my father, still-in-love ex, and said ex's biased family not twenty feet away.

I still didn't care.

For, at that moment, all there was was Will and I, floating on that sea of light again.

"See, this is what happens when you try to decorate Bella's truck."

I almost choked on Will's tounge, which would have made the moment even worse.

I heard Will's sigh of regret and watched, dazed, as his head turned to stare blankly at his sister and Emily, standing there, looking a little awkward.

I was flushing so deeply that I was sure I was blending in with the color of the hood of my truck.

"Yes, Maria, Emily?"

"We're just out here to warn you tha-"

The door slammed open and Edward, followed by Emmett and Jasper, came out. To my horror the Paul rounded the corner, shaking. I was shocked not to see Sam, or any of the others. Alice didn't even come.

"Will, these... vampires said we were merely dogs, and it was disgusting to see a human dating one. Are we going to let it stand?"

Will's eyes darkened, and I saw his lips part and his breath come out in an angry hiss. I felt him begin to twist himself to go join Paul standing across from Edward, Emmett and Jasper. I didn't miss how Edward's eyes, black with anger, locked with Will's, making the challenge yet again.

I tightened my arms around my neck as he tried to pull away, holding him for a moment until his gentle strength broke my grip.

"Will..." I looked up at him pleadingly. Normally this would have worked in getting his undivided attention, but now his pride and previously dormant fury at Edward had raised its head.

And therefore failure was assured.

He looked at me, an apology flickering in his eyes before he answered Paul's question, unwinding my arms from around his neck and rising.

"No."

I sighed, l knew I might as well not even have been there.

But I was, so as they took their stances across form each other I had to do something to try to stop it.

"Hey!" I called, trying to hop off the hood of my truck without damaging myself. I made it, sort of. "Isn't that unfair?" I waved a hand at the two sides, one with three powerful vampires the other with only two powerful werewolves.

Will looked at me with a look on his face like he had thought of something to say that would bring things to a climax all the faster.

"Yeah, Bella's right . Paul, leave." He didn't laugh, his mouth merely twitching while Paul barked a laugh.

The immortals glowered.

I was frantic, this was not the time or the place. What on earth were they thinking, doing this here? Not that, considering what I'd just been doing, I could really be talking.

Will and Paul were pulling their shirts over their heads and taking their shoes off, not valuing mere jeans on that level.

"Will," I called out his name again, hurrying over to him, ignoring Paul's and his' shaking. "Will don't do this."

"I have to, Bella. It's idiotic, I know, but I have to. It's an animal urge, irrisistable." He looked at me pleadingly, hoping I would understand. And I did, sort of. I still thought it was stupid.

"Will..."

"Bella, please, just back away from me. Nothing on this earth could stop me from fighting them now."

I looked from him to the vampires, once my friends, now standing, cold and isolated, across a battle line from me. As much as their logic ("they" being Edward mostly) annoyed me, I still loved them. Yes, even Edward. And I loved the werewolves even more, they'd become more my family than the Cullens ever had.

Which is probably why, as Jasper drew his lips back from his mouth for a snarl, Edward tensed, shifting into the feline position I knew too well, and Emmett cracked his neck, I let my passion, which had for too long been the rather irrational, caring voice in the back of my head, take action.

Ignoring Will's orders I moved closer to him. He leant his head down without breaking eye contact with someone on the "other side." Edward most likely.

"Will, you have two options now."

I whispered. He opened his mouth as if to contradict me and I cut him off, my voice a little stronger now.

"Your first option is to stay here and fight, endangering your pack's secret identity and possibly that of the vampire's as well."

I paused, letting this sink in. His shaking was still strong and he was still staring angrily at Edward. I could tell he was listening, though.

"Your second option..." I took a shaky breath, trying to supress the bubble of worry at what I was about to say, "Your second option is to, yes, let it stand, and come home and take out your animal urges with me."

Will's shaking stopped dead.

He turned to look slowly at me and, seeing my still steady gaze and surprisingly flush-less face, faltered.

He looked back down at me and opened his mout hto speak again, almost as stunned as I was at what I had said.

There were several, very sexy things I could have said in that moment. But, as per usual, sexiness eluded me. Instead I just murmered a simple,

"Please, Will?"

I barely had time to catch the death of his stunned silence in his eyes before he kissed me, deep and passionate, happiness radiating through both of us. It was the worst time to do that but I found, for the second time that night, I didn't care.

Parting, Will looked down at me with eyes full of love, smiling.

"Bella, even if that was just a sick, practical joke, I am completely ready to follow you anywhere."

I smiled, small and full of delight, happiness brimming over yet again. And I knew he didn't just mean for intercourse. He meant for anything. If I thought I'd left a shoe at the Cullen's house he would go there with me to get it back.

Biting my lower lip I walked away, moving out to my truck. From under my belt I pulled my keys out, unlocking my door. Will was already in when I hopped in. He pulled me across the seat to him and onto his lap, and then sliding us both back behind the wheel, holding me as I drove.

**And cut. That's as deeply as I will go into a description. Yeah.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Disclaimer: (See previous chapter. Pick a chapter, any chapter.)**

I woke still wrapped around Will.

Sitting up I looked around my upset room, waking up slowly. Random articles of clothing decorated my room; evidence of something my father would crucify me for if he found out. Well, either Will or me.

At the moment said doomed werewolf was still sleeping, but I knew he'd be up any second. It was creepy how he did that, knowing when I was awake and somehow waking himself up as well.

Like Santa Claus.

Except minus the jolly belly, and the being human part, and the being a myth part.

I sighed. My thoughts weren't making sense this early, or was it actually late? I glanced at the clock.

Four A.M.

"Wow, we've only been asleep five hours. Crazy how time flies when you're sleep-deprived?"

I looked back down at Will with a smile. He turned his head back to look at me, a smile spreading across his lips. My hands pressed one of his into my cheek, still smiling.

"Breakfast?"

Will glanced briefly around the room.

"Daddy?"

It sounded weird, yes, but I knew what he meant. Charlie wouldn't be away from home, caught in the party we'd abandoned, for very much longer.

This, as we were now, would not look good.

With a sigh I rolled off of Will, sort of, my foot catching in the sheets and flipping me onto the floor. I winced as I landed, wishing I had put a carpet down earlier.

Will had me up, pulling me rather sharply by the hand, and thumping into a sitting position on my bed. He'd mysteriously found his pants somewhere and was now searching for his shirt, grumbling agitatedly.

I too was in action, although less gracefully. A nightshirt was found and I tugged my old sweatpants on groggily, the full urgency of the moment not quite setting in yet.

I heard Charlie's cruiser in the driveway.

Will's and mine's eyes met, our panic evident.

I ran to the window, Charlie was fumbling with his seatbelt, and the front door was on the other end of the house from my window.

I felt Will behind me and turned to, in short, push him out a window.

Opening it gently, he had one leg out when he turned back to look at me. His kiss caught me off guard, helping to relax me.

Charlie's door slammed and we heard him stumble to the front door.

"Go!" I hissed, doing what I could to force Will outside. Will merely smiled, not budging, before leaping into the pre-dawn air. He landed with the faintest of thumps and had flashed into the forest. If I had blinked I would have missed the entire thing.

I heard Charlie knocking quietly on my door and whirled, still trying to shove the jammed window down. I gave up and pretended to have been gazing vacantly out my window.

"Hey Bells, when'd you get home?"

Charlie seemed…mildly drunk. Ah well it was bound to happen sooner or later. I _had _been wondering what was so special about the fruit punch.

"Ten-ish. Breakfast?"

I'd been hoping that, in his blurry state, Charlie wouldn't notice how rushed my words were.

"Sure…"

Luck, it seemed, had decided to give me a vacation.

For now. I could see myself running into one of the Cullens at the grocery store or something later.

**Short I know but Writer's Block unfortunately isn't misogynist, (as in, leaving females alone on the presumption that we are weaker on some vague, ridiculous level) and picks on both genders. **


	19. Chapter 19

The irony might've killed me if I hadn't been on such an important mission.

I had been out, getting peanut butter for sandwiches later. Will had invited me on a picnic, warning me that Maria and the pack would be there so this wasn't "just a lame excuse to get you alone OK never mind hanging up now."

But back to the death by irony part.

Alice was graceful even in stillness, wide dark gold eyes flicking from side to side. Alice was still waiting for me to respond. Most of my mind, at the moment, was still focused on whether to buy Jiffy or Skippy. They sounded the same; maybe they'd taste the same too. Anyway, the point is that I had more important things than what Alice was saying to me at that moment.

"Bella, are you even listening to me?"

No.

"Sorry Alice, what did you say?"

Curse my manners and barely-repressed love for her and her family. Despite everything we'd said and done to each other I still loved the Cullen's. Sort of.

"I _said,_" my lack of concern over her words seemed to irritate Alice slightly, but she persisted nonetheless, "that your little speech last night was not wise. Do you have any idea what it did to Edward? As if he needed any more reason to-"

I interrupted her there, in my confusion. Speech?

"Alice, what speech? First of all I never spoke a single word to him, or any of you that night. Second of all, speech? I spoke about two sentences, and, again, not to any one of your kind."

My last sentence was touched with harshness towards vampires I hadn't known before. Wait, _vampires?_ Maybe I had been spending a little to much time around prejudiced werewolves after all, or maybe I was just sick of being blamed for their insecurities. Which I realized, in that moment, was exactly what this was about. As Alice explained next, her shock at my term quickly being wiped away.

"Bella, I am referring to your proposal to the… wolf." I could see that it cost her to dub him as something more dignified than a mutt. Progress through prejudice, who would've guessed. "Said graceless sentence was not good for Edward. He is brooding right now, or he was when I last checked in on him. The possible futures are not looking good! Bella, you have to understand-"

But I cut her passionate words off again. For some reason I felt my fury, normally reserved for Edward, rising within me. Maybe I was PMSing who knows.

"Understand what? That somehow, even though we're _ex_, I'm somehow responsible for that hundred-year-old baby? Since when does that make sense? I am in love with Will, and there is _nothing _Edward, or anyone else for that matter, can do that will keep us apart. We, unlike Edward and myself, work. No James trying to kill me, no vampires aching to drain me dry on my _birthday_. You can hate the wolves as much as you want, but don't expect me to. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some peanut butter to purchase."

I had decided to buy both. For some reason Will and his 'brothers' ate like hadn't seen so much as a bagel in months.

I turned and strode away from Alice, only tripping twice, to my pride.

I could feel her barely restrained "Aren't _we_ nice?" comment. Suppressing the urge to whirl back around and apologize I strutted first to my truck, then back inside to grab the forgotten peanut butter, then back outside to remember where I'd parked.

And then into my truck, head held high, to drive away and wonder at whether or not Paul was gay.

**Random I know but I love peanut butter.**

**No I kid I'm allergic to it.**

**But yes.**

**Wow, these have been really short chapters… No worries the next shall be long. Er. Whatever. R&R.**


	20. Chapter 20

**Ha, ha, ha, there's a long, awkward story behind why this chapter took me so long.**

**The reason, my darling reader, is quite simply that I forgot. Normally the occasional review will pop up after about an hour of being online, and this will inspire me, (or at least remind me) to write. But this time, something with my account pulled an Edward on me, and left with no evidence of ever being there.**

**And so I relaxed, and thus this serious lack of new chapters occurred.**

**Anyway, here's one now. I'm going to be putting out like five or so tomorrow. This fiction will be over before you know it.**

**Watch out, I'd stop caring about Will now if I were you.**

**Luckily I'm not and,, because I'm already fully aware of the ending (I have half of it typed up already) I'm going to continue caring. And then, when the end comes, I'm going to cry for Will just like I did when I first wrote it.**

**Who knows. You might cry. You might not. I did, and I hope you at least care enough to finish reading this fan fiction.**

**Now, on with the show.**

**EPOV….**

I had spent the past thirteen or so hours trying to blank Bella's terrible words from my mind.

"Take you animal urges out on me…"

My heart, the ashes that remained at least, burned again. It had been a serious strain on my personal endurance not to kill the dog right then and there.

Jasper was most likely to thank for that, a conversation I should be having with him now. Still I did not move from where I sat.

The images of last night again flashed through my mind, and, amazingly, my chest grew even tighter. It was a wonder it hadn't crumpled in on itself by now, like paper burning.

I couldn't take it. I rose fluidly, running, the landscape blurring past me, downstairs to seek my Volvo.

I heard the sound of Alice returning, and as she moved past my form I smelled the faintest hint of Bella on her.

I inhaled deeply, and a bit of the ache left my chest. But only briefly. Even with so little of Bella's precious essence in my nostrils, I could still smell the wolf on her. All over her, actually, making her scent that much stronger. Like dumping compost over an rose and trying to appreciate the flower's smell.

Disgusting.

I shook with new fury, this faint evidence beign enough to set me off again. I remembered my mission and headed for the car. Alice's arm caught mine briefly and I refrained from continuing anyway, dragging her with me if necessary. Not that Jasper would be very pleased to see her treated so poorly.

"Where are you going?"

I pulled on my arm, desperate to get out of there before my agonized pain broke through the barriers of self-restraint. Alice wasn't letting me go, so I answered, ignoring her shocked look.

"Bella."

Her surprise slackened her arm, and I was off again, bound for another round of self-induced torture. I still wasn't thinking clearly, but I knew then that I never would if I didn't see her. Already I could feel the dams of self-restraint, the only thing now keeping me from wreaking a terrible damage, beginning to crack, tiny faults running up their great, invisible structures.

Just as Bella's hands must have run over the dog's flawless russet flesh. Yes, even **I **had to admit he was perfect.

For a _dog._

I bit back a shudder, whether anger or disgust or perhaps my blinding jealousy induced it, I'll never know.

I had to get to her before my jealously drove me mad. As I slammed the driver's seat door shut I used just a little bit too much force and would have been cursing and beating the door back into its original shape had not I been so furious.

_This will lead to a very sad ending, Edward…._

I barely heard Alice's thoughts and didn't care anyway.

The road blurred beneath my tires and I tried futilely to come up with something to say to her when I saw her.

I pulled to a stop across the street from her house, pressing my fingers into my temples, willing everyone to just _shut up_, to stop thinking for just one minute.

I turned every possible conversation piece for talking to Bella over in my mind, but they all seemed to lead to situations where I made a fool of myself and the dog gained.

I settled that now was a good time to take a leaf from Emmett's book and growled to the silence of my car.

"Screw it."

Slamming my abused door shut again as I moved out of my car I stormed angrily over to her front yard, fighting the urge to run at my normal, immortal speed and simply smash through the wall.

I forced myself to halt, hand cramping with the urge to rip the door off its hinges, run inside, and embrace Bella holding her, inhaling her intoxicating scent. But she would reek of wolf, and that evidence of the dog's ever being with her in any level would send him into another rage that would be deadly to Bella.

Bella…

Focusing on the matter at hand, I forced myself forward, one deceivingly calm step at a time, fighting the voice nagging in the back of my head that this was a bad idea.

I froze when I reached the point in the lawn where I could see into the window above the sink. Bella was washing her hands, the steaming water condensing slightly on the window. She was speaking over her shoulder to someone, and I didn't hear _it's_ thoughts until it was too late. At the moment I'd been preoccupied with the way the fifty-watt bulb above the sink made Bella glow as she turned her attention back to her hands, smiling that delighted and secret smile that, although it clearly was not meant for me, made my heart soar. I walked slowly to a tree, relaxing against it as I watched her smile broaden, and her musical laughter came softly through the closed window. I closed my eyes, memorizing the moment. Bella, framed perfectly in her window, happy, bathed in warmth…

_This _was the reason I had torn myself from her in the first place, to see her like this.

Inevitably the utter peace of that moment had to be shattered. It seemed, at the time, that nothing perfect ever stayed. My love with Bella certainly being an example of that, and what I saw next also falling into that category.

I saw, as if in slow motion, the dog walk up behind her and wrap his long, undeserving arms around her, pulling her to his broad chest, tilting his head down to kiss the top of her head. Bella twisted and kissed him on the lips. Wiping her hands on his shirt, she laughed slightly and stood on the point of her toes to kiss him again, laughing loudly enough for even a mortal to hear through the window when the dog, arms tightening around her, leaned her backwards. I watched the fabric of her shirt crinkle as her back arched smoothly against the counter.

"I really should be heading to the restaurant, I don't want to keep the vampires," it stung that she'd refer to us as that, "wai-"

"Shh," I wished desperately that something, anything, would strike the hated mutt down, and this wish flared violently as it finished its sentence by kissing Bella, "I seriously doubt that the leeches are going to be running out of time, any…time…soon…."

I had been a statue, unable to move, remain ignorant to this painful scene, but my eyelids didn't seem to be in working order, peeled fully back in shocked heartbreak.

I clawed desperately at my sense of reason, my love for her.

For her. For her. For her. For her…

The dying voice of humanity in the back of my head repeated this fragmented sentence like a mantra, trying to pull me from the burning talons of my rising fury.

My fury rose within me, roared, and squashed the little voice, but luckily not before I'd flashed to the shelter of the trees, panting.

Looking back on those blindly enraged moments, I can't be sure I even fully knew what I was thinking. All I was conscious of was the click of the door as the dog kissed her one last time and left, returning to its own territory. And then there was nothing in the world but the shell formerly known as a reasonable (partially) vampire, and Bella.

She opened the door and stepped out into the twilight air, pulling her keys out. An unfortunate wind caught her heady scent and blew it over to me. I inhaled and the next thing I knew I was standing behind her.

Bell was fumbling with her keys, mumbling to herself, wondering where she had put them. I leaned closer to her, the monster within me fully in charge of my actions now.

Which is probably why I didn't fight myself as I felt my hands wrap around her, one pinning her arm across her stomach, holding her to me while the other locked onto her face, yanking her head to the side.

Thick, silken brown hair flowed out of the way to expose her jugular.

"Edward?!"

Her terrified voice and heartbeat were the only sounds in the night as I licked the bared skin of her throat.

I savored the taste of her translucent skin, her pulse wild beneath it.

"E-" her voice was cut off as I sunk my teeth into her jugular, and her thin frame shook with the force of my hunger.

Bella's blood flowed down my throat, bringing with it a kind of carnal heaven I'd never knew existed. Where her scent alone had driven me insane, the taste drove me past any form of conscious thought. Sweet, hot, and endless, I drank, relishing the way her blood set my vein endings on fire as if I still had a pulse, a soul.

While the monster drank, the love still buried within me screamed to stop. My love for her pounded at the iron walls of my anger, tearing a hole in the monster's resolve.

I tore my head up, releasing her. Bella went limp, her struggles when I drank from her stopping with her strength. Through my delirium my sanity was quickly returning, or shards of it.

I carried her then, flipping her up and cradling her chilled form to my own icy one as I ran. I arrived at our meadow, and stopped.

My thoughts wouldn't seem to settle, darting around incoherently inside my mind. The grasses waved gently around her, and I deftly stopped the flow of blood, halting my breathing.

I tried to think logically. What would Carlisle do?

_Carlisle wouldn't have gotten into this mess in the first place!_

My very thoughts rejected me in that moment. I knew I had to do something soon, but I couldn't really suck the poison out without killing her, and neither option seemed very wise. Before I could decide anything, it seemed, it began.

Looking down at her stilled frame, I released a strangled noise as her eyes flashed wide, brown and terrified, and her lovely lips parted, and her screaming began.


	21. Chapter 21

**Alice's POV. Terrifying I know.**

Edward moved past me, and I listened to the sound of his car peeling out of the dirt driveway and vanishing through the trees and down the road.

My eyebrows pulled together, concerned for his sanity and Bella's safety. Jasper came downstairs to find me staring out the back wall/window, worrying myself almost into hyperventilation. That reaction to this mess would've been funny on a normal day, (really, a vampire panicking to the point of fainting?) but now was not helpful. I felt the comfort of his presence and powers of emotional control wash over me, and my unnecessary breathing slowed.

I turned to look up at his caring face and soothing eyes.

Long pale hands lifted to press themselves into my face, pulling my attention sharply to him.

"Jasper, what happened to our family?"

Jasper sighed with me and we breathed in each other's fragrance. He smiled gently down at me, deep voice relaxing me further.

"Bella happened. And don't even try to lie to me like Emmett," Emmett had been trying to tell us that he was glad that Bella wasn't talking to us anymore, that she'd been nothing more than an annoyance. Jasper had told me about how much he missed her. "I know you still love the little girl."

"Yes but Edward's going to ruin _everything_ at this rate…"

"Why? Did you have a vision?"

"No…"

"Then don't worry. If he's going to screw up you'll have a vision and we'll be there to catch his mistake as per usual."

I opened my mouth to speak, but something else drove all other thoughts from my mind.

The room and Jasper twisted away to be replaced with the image of Edward, filling my mind.

Before my eyes I watched him, and felt his fury taking over, his roar echoed through my head. I saw Bella. I saw her on the forest floor, alone and stilled. Seeing her like that, however briefly, felt like dying again. I saw her eyes flash open, heard her screaming, saw her clawing at the air, crying and calling for the dog. A white room a recognized, (it was in our attic, facing the river) appeared with her in the middle of it, still screaming and sobbing blindly. I was looking down on her now, from a bird's eye perspective. She had stilled and I watched in horror as she opened her eyes and stared up at me through her vision, brows pulling together as I watched her whisper something.

The vision ended, and I took a shocked step back from Jasper. His face was etched with worry, and his hands had moved to hold mine.

I looked at him with wild, frntic eyes and breathed the words, "You're wrong, Jasper. He's already ruined it."

**Short, I know, but there wasn't much I could do with Alice and Jasper. Well, that's not exactly true but…Yeah. Lol.**

**R&R peeps.**


	22. Chapter 22

**Whoops. It seemed that in the last chapter I misspelled frantic. My bad.**

**Will's perspective.**

This wasn't good.

It seemed that I'd left the keys to my house at Bella's. Luckily I knew from experience how to open her back window without damaging it or making a noise. It's a long story don't ask.

Whistling quietly to myself as I walked I practically skipped back to her house, through her window, and over to the counter where the dishes were still drying.

I stopped, realizing what was wrong with this scene.

Outside of the whistling, at least.

I was skipping. _Skipping._ I grinned wildly to myself, not caring. I was now completely Bella's on every level imaginable. It was difficult to believe that this wasn't just a hallucination, or a vivid dream.

I still didn't care. If it was a dream than I hoped suddenly that I'd fallen into a permanent coma and would remain here for the rest of my life. Hopefully.

My thoughts weren't making sense, I needed to calm down and focus on the matter at hand.

Keys.

I snagged them off the countertop and opened the front door this time, knowing the automatic lock Charlie'd had installed after I'd shown up would click into place.

I froze outside of the door. Why was Bella's truck still there, her keys on the brick of the driveway underneath the driver's side door?

A wind blew in my face, carrying over information that chilled my insides.

Vampire.

And Bella. I smelled her through that terrible, burning scent.

My black eyes flicked from her keys to the blood splatters, dark against the bright, faded red of her truck and the terra-cotta color of the brick driveway.

The lock clicked shut behind me.

I immediately fell into "Sam-mode," as Bella called it. Emotion dropped from my face, and the only sign of my intense worry was my clenched jaw.

I let the raging terror for Bella's safety and hissing rage at the _leech_ daring to do this take over, and exploded into the huge, granite-furred wolf.

_Sam. Get here now. _

_Why?_

I remembered only then. I wasn't the alpha. He was. And speaking to him like that, or rather _thinking_ to him like that was very foolish. But I didn't care. Bella was missing, and I wasn't about to sit back and ask politely for someone smaller than me's permission.

_Just get the pack over here, Sam. Bella's **gone** and I smell the leech here._

I'd felt them coming, seen the tress passing them as they ran so it wasn't a shock when my brothers burst from the woods. I paced forward, and we stood in a sort of circle around the spot where Bella'd bled.

I could barely keep still, twitching with the urge to roar at Sam, calm and detached, for being so mature about this and not running to the leech's home and making him tell us what happened to her.

He was speaking to me now, pulling me out of my fantasy of doing just this, disturbing them all.

_Will. I'll talk to Emily about it. Jacob, you take care of Maria. Check to see if she was there. The rest of you, Paul, Jared, Embry, Quil go to the restaurant and see if she _ever_ showed up. And Will, remember; don't do anything to compromise the treaty. Don't go looking for her on your own. Remember the pack. Which is more important? You need to also recall that the tribe relies on us for protection._

_I know this, Sam. _I thought coldly back.

_Will; don't even think about doing anything stu-_

I had been stalking away, already anxious to get to the Cullen's house, and whirled to glare at Sam's new thoughts. I pulled back my lips and roared at him, and the others. The violence and rage in the sound tearing at my throat as it erupted into the air. The windows of Bella's truck rattled with the sound.

Sam said nothing, thought nothing, and I ran.

The forest streaked past me and with each passing moment something in the back of my mind whispered that I was already too late. It seemed that I couldn't move fast enough, although I knew I'd never gone faster.

In moments the cursed white house had risen before me, and I ran around to the back. Bella had loved their stupid front doors and I wasn't about to break something she loved.

At least, nothing she loved that didn't bite people.

I was around and in the back in a second, not breaking my run even as I spotted three of the males and two females by the river. I ground to a halt, panting and glaring furiously at each of them in turn, settling finally on the alpha male of them.

I moved forwards, my breath frosting in the cold January air. I snarled in his face, asking in the only way I could at that moment where Bella was.

They all merely crinkled their noses, apparently as disturbed by my smell as I was by theirs.

When the alpha failed to comprehend what I wanted I glared balefully around the circle until settling on the other blonde male.

Jasper was what Bella had called him, and he was supposed to be able to read emotions. It stalked over to him and curled my lips back over my teeth, trying to communicate my desperation.

It took him a moment, but when he got it it was like a truck had hit him.

Blondie's eyes flashed over to the tiny, dark haired female's.

"He's here about Bella."

Damn right I was here about her! Why _else _would I have even come to them?

The tiny one sucked in a sharp breath and spoke sadly.

"I told you he'd ruin everything."

"Again? Damn and just when I thought I'd gotten it ri-"

The leech's voice was cut off by a snarl at the sight of me. Before I could fully think through the consequences of my actions, I lunged at him. He had done this. Stolen Bella. I knew it. They knew it. But still they helped him when I attacked.

All ten of my fore claws dug into his chest again, easily shredding his shirt and chest. Lifting one I remade the scar from our last fight that'd faded, carving until I felt his cheekbone protest my claw's progress.

_Hello there, little leech. Are you going to tell me what you did with Bella?_

I thought this grimly, accompanying it with a roar as I pinned him to the earth. The others were already pounding at my sides, the two non-alpha males tearing at my fur. The largest, although thankfully he wasn't taller than myself, was beginning to crack one of my ribs with his constant pounding.

The tiny one seemed to be the only leech fully in control of herself. She moved to crouch near "Edward's head.

"What does he want, Edward?"

She sounded like she knew. My big black eyes narrowed at her and my head lifted a little to snap my teeth a few inches from her face. She remained calm but I could smell the beginnings of fear as she gazed evenly back into my furiously desperate black eyes.

The leech looked very uncomfortable, and his brothers' progress didn't seem to be getting me off of him fast enough for his taste.

I felt a false calm trying to work its way through me, and fought at it desperately, holding onto the memory of Bella's blood, spilled on the ground next to her long-forgotten keys.

It worked, sort of. Blondie's power still pulled me into a slightly more human shape. My teeth remained terrible, and my skin was a sleek, black-silver color. My hair seemed to be the way it was normally, black and spiky naturally. I could still see in an amazing range so I supposed my eyes were still huge, black and dilated. My nails, both on my toes and on my hands, were long, black against my oddly tough, dark silver skin. It was disconcerting, being the blurry line between werewolf and human.

I rose, releasing the leech from my deadly grip. Rolling my shoulders back and took a step back, looking around warily. I wasn't standing fully upright, my stance still slightly feral.

All of the vampires present were staring at me, horrified and possibly disgusted. Whether at this new hybrid between my human and wolf form, or simply at my nudity. Either way I didn't care. Bella was in danger, lost and most likely bleeding.

I moved arrogantly forward, my graceful, rolling pace bringing me a pace or two away from their alpha.

I smiled, releasing a sigh through my very canine teeth. My smile was more of a threat than a smile in truth.

"Bella is missing, _leech._ And the place where her scent ends reeks of him," I jerked my head towards "Edward."

A rumble of prejudice-born hate came from the vampires, and I did my best to ignore them. But, as it turns out, in my peculiar new form, I was still as attuned to every shift of dead muscle in each of their relative bodies as I was when a wolf.

Huh.

When no one answered, merely flicking their eyes from the leech to their alpha and occasionally to me, I took another step forward. I was rather enjoying this new feeling of my skin, it was silken almost, sleek. It was very weird.

I sighed again, my lips tightening as they closed around another smile.

"Do you have _any_ idea as to where she might be," I paused, now only an inch away from their alpha's face. The last word in my sentence was spoken as a challenge, daring them to partake in my lack of control. "Bitch."

Not the most original of insults, I know, but it certainly got the message across. I smirked in the alpha's stone face before turning and stalking away, Blondie still not letting my anger fully back in.

It was foolish, stupid even, of me to turn my back on the bloodsuckers. But I did anyway, a final insult to their immortal pride.

I barely had time to react when he tackled me to the ground. I flipped myself over before being grabbed by the huge one and Blondie, aiding the most-hated leech in his attack of me. Curling my legs I kicked him back away from me, continuing the motion by sweeping my legs up, flipping myself again and in back of the two who still held my arms. As I did this the bigger one cracked my forearm, and it bent in a place I knew it shouldn't have.

Blondie whirled to face me as I came down behind them, and I only had time to drop kick the larger one and crack his head against the tiny one before his palms were on my face.

Immediately I felt myself relax, my lack-of-sleep surfacing under his touch. I struggled in vain, parting my lips to roar at him, kicking and clawing as the rest of them sought their vengeance on me for my arrogant words. My vision dimmed and I let my anger go to embrace my anguish for Bella's safety. I was losing, and Bella needed me. The leeches would get what they wanted, and I would fail to keep Bella safe, I would be the cause of her sorrow.

I was no better than the leech now speaking with the alpha, both looking on coldly.

I was screaming in my mind as Blondie's powers stripped away thought and the will to stay conscious.

I let out a small cry at the feeling of the tiny one, who was up by now and very pissed at being cracked against the largest of them, shredding my back. I felt muscle tendons snap and through the smell of my own blood, flowing hot and fast, I smelled their blind fury.

Well, well, well. I guess they really _were _monsters, despite their play at humanity.

Blondie's eyes flicked over my shoulder and he whispered something that sounded suspiciously like a loving words, soothing the tiny one. Either way she stopped, but I couldn't feel my legs and my arm seemed to be broken in three different places.

With one final howl to the sky, I felt my skin loose its silkiness, slipping now fully back into human form. MY voice was weak, as broken as the rest of me when I cried:

'Bella, I'm…so…sorry…"

And then the blackness that'd been creeping at the edges of my vision pulled my into unconsciousness.

**Alice! Violent! Well that was pretty much the only ass-kicking you will ever see Will receive so savor it while you can, Will-haters.**


	23. Chapter 23

**Hmm…**

**Where to begin where to begin….**

**Let's talk about all my…interesting reviews. I agree with about half of them. **

**BUT.**

**Really people control yourselves. If someone as randomly crazy (not literally) as myself can have the restraint to repress every nasty impulse to kill off a certain pissy little vampire, you should at least _try_ to give constructive criticism.**

**Okay story… (WARNING: Maria swears in this one. Beware, she's got the mouth of a sailor.)**

**Jacob's POV**

I had never noticed the hearts carved into the wood of Will's kitchen floor. Sometimes the etched symbols of love would vanish underneath Maria's slippers; the satin russet skin of her tiny feet showing in the space between where her socks ended and her "sleeping shorts" began. Long legs, for someone so short, I realized now, and quickly shook such thoughts from my mind. They wouldn't help.

Besides Maria would, from what I'd witnessed of her treatment towards her own kin, beat me with a frying pan if she knew what I was thinking.

Will.

Focus.

Will's been missing and none of us can pick up his scent. We'd followed it through the woods, picking up the traces of what must have been his blinding fury at the time. The scent led had led us to a dead end, though, a clearing deep in the woods but not too far from the leech's "home."

Well, to be honest the trail led in through the great side door, and we didn't dare barge into their house, not after already pushing the limits, letting Will go there.

Sam was now out running with Jared and Paul, Quil was still protecting Emily while Sam was out.

"Where the Hell is he? Jacob, morph into a giant dog again and find him!"

I sighed. Maria's voice gave away how worried she was over her brother.

"Maria, we've done what we can under the current treaty. Now our most important goal is to find Bella. She's still lost in the woods, you know."

That's what we had been telling Maria, not wanting to spread the word that she'd most likely been bitten by one of the local leeches and was now bleeding to death somewhere unknown to us.

Maria' eyes narrowed. She was on to me I just knew it. I felt the hair on the back of my neck prickle, and repressed the cold sweat I felt rising.

"Jacob," Uh oh. She was using a suspiciously innocent tone on me. I could sense the oncoming rally of questions coming, and prepared myself to ignore her big, black eyes, "Why would Bella be walking through the woods if she was going to her dinner with the vampires?"

I remained stoic, looking out their back windows blankly; twitching with the need to tell her what was going on. Curse my hormones! Curse them!

I clawed desperately at my self-cursing, but Maria took a step towards me and I was lost. All of my attention focused on her too-calm black eyes. Damn. She had Will's eyes; I realized now, the same unreadable flicker of honest emotion was beneath the deep black surface.

"Unless she was taken from where she was supposed to be, perhaps bitten, and abandoned somewhere deep in the woods where not even the Pack could find her…"

Her tone of voice changed as she spoke, intuition flickering in the depths of her eyes.

Aforementioned cold sweat broke across the back of my neck and I saw her eyes flick up to catch the reaction. Unfortunately her quick mind clicked it all together, my nervous sweat only confirming her suspicions. Before I could say anything she was out the door, the sound of her socks over cement walkway retreating quickly for a human.

I was out the door and after her in a second.

"Maria! Maria, stop!"

My hand caught her upper arm, careful not to bruise her but not to give her enough space to pull away and go get herself killed.

"Jacob! How can you just stay here!"

Crap. Now came the part where she screamed her flawless logic at me and I had to just drag her back inside and slam the door shut and keep an eye on her so she wouldn't try escaping through some other route to go find Bella and Will.

Maria's words came out predictably, but still stung.

"Jacob! What are we even _doing_ here? Bella is in danger and Will probably is too! The goddamn fucking vampires have screwed everything up, and you're just like, 'Ohh, Maria, don't go looking for them!' Well fuck that!"

Who knew Maria's vocabulary was so colorful?

"Maria-" My attempt at calming her failed, and she smacked the soothing hand I'd reached up to place on her shoulder away.

"No! You don't get it, Jacob! Will is **all I have!** For nineteen fucking years we only had each other, not like the family would talk to us for coming here when your fucking father called." Her voice slowed, and her worry began to shine strongly through her anger at me, "And then.. Bella came. At first she was just a name I heard every night for three weeks, and then she showed up on my porch smiling nervously, Will standing behind her beaming lovingly down at her." Maria's face softened infinitesimally," And suddenly everything was happy, because Will was happy. In love, for the first time, with someone who knew about the whole werewolf thing and didn't care."

Her face darkened, just as I'd seen Will's so many times before when Bella'd been threatened.

"So now, when the vampires act on their fucking foolishness, and Will vanishes after Bella gets most likely bitten and killed, the only god-fucking-damn bastards who can _do_ something about it won't!"

Maria was panting after her rant, still glaring at me. I sighed and looked away, and then back down at her outraged expression.

"Get dressed, I'll take you there."

I practically snapped the words but they made the corners of her mouth twitch with satisfaction. I knew I'd regret this but just then I didn't care. She had too many valid points and I cared too much for Bella and Will to just listen to authority.

In a moment Maria back, dressed in what was for her a threatening fashion. She was dressed in the black she and Will had worn for a decade and a half in a quiet mourning for their unknown family. How they'd found any of their relatives, let alone the Reservation, was a mystery to me.

Moon boots stolen from Bella (the one's given to her by one of the leeches) made an indescribable sound against cement, and black skinny jeans swished softly as she strode. An equally black v-necked shirt contrasted in an almost seductive manner with her skin, russet as my own. For the second (third?) time that night I repressed my hormones.

"Hop on," I growled, and for a moment my image blurred and then I was the wolf, staring down into Maria's equally feral, yet somehow intelligent, eyes. A grim smile lit her face and I felt any compassion I may have had for the leeches die away.

Somehow Maria managed to propel herself off the ground, twisting mid-air to thump onto my back, straddling me as if she were a bull rider.

I'd be the bull in that scenario.

But those thoughts were quickly wiped from my mind as I ran, my paws making fast progress over the earth. While Will was the biggest of us, I was the fastest. Or at least, the most attuned to Bella.

I felt Maria's fingers tighten in my fur as she pressed herself as flat as possible, whispering to me over the wind of our passage,

"Faster."

And so I sped up, ignoring the beginnings of a burn in my muscles. Before I knew it I smelled the leech's house and slowed gradually, walking by the time we broke out of the forest.

I paused briefly, giving Maria time to dismount. She stayed where she was, sitting up tall and proud.

With a soft snarl I walked forward, only stopping to lift a paw to slam the doors open.

Six of them looked up. Distantly, in the back of my mind, I noted that Bella's ex was absent.

Maria noticed it too, judging by her coolly angered words, barely more than a hiss.

"Hello."

As a whole, the leeches were calm. I felt an arrogant remark brewing in Maria and was almost relieved when one of them chose to speak.

The blonde female whose name escapes me moved forward, looking pissed.

"What the Hell is this? 'Barge In On The Vampire's Home' Night?"

Maria ignored her, looking to the others coldly.

"Where are they, Bella and Will? We know Will's somewhere here… The Pack said his trail ended at your door."

Why she was telling them this, I'd never know. I was sure they already knew as the way the grass had been bent had suggested Will had been dragged to their house.

Alice, for some reason I remembered her name, spoke next.

"She's the sister."

The female with the caramel hair released a small, sad sound and convered her mouth. Carlisle, (why did I only seem to remember those two?), rose and took her hand, comforting her.

With an impatient sigh Maria slid off my back and strode purposefully over to Alice. Alice bristled, clearly smelling the wolf in her blood.

"Listen." Her voice had a new urgency to it, growing tired of their immortal games, "I'm not sure if you remember what it was like to have to worry about the people you love dying, bu-"

"How could we not remember? We _still_ have to worry." Alice said quietly, just before the blonde male flashed to her side. I moved forwards as well, backing Maria up.

Maria's patience, or what little was left of it, unfortunately snapped at that.

"Then start fucking acting like it! I am here to find my brother, and to find his lover, my friend. You say you know what this is like yet you act just like the walking fucking dead our people talk about when we're too bored to think about anything _meaningful_." I flicked my eyes around, slightly worried at what her impudence would cost us. There were six of them to my one the fight would be swift. Despite the way Alice's eyes narrowed with her anger, as did the others', Maria went on, taking a daring step forward. I noticed now that they were the same height, although in her fury Maria seemed a few inches taller.

"So, _leech_, if you really cared about Bella and her well being as much as you constantly seem to be claiming," she paused. Her voice was mockingly sociable, as if suggesting something obvious to a chronically challenged person, "I don't know, I just thought you might actually _get over yourselves_ and _help me _find her and restore the peace the bastard with the bronze hair has yet again upset."

I wasn't sure if it was simply shock at how much she knew or how rude Maria was being that triggered Alice's violence, and I knew the truth would never be clear to me. I could tell the fact that Maria was human was the only thing keeping her from killing her, and most likely the reason her swing was so slow. Either way I caught her tiny fist in my teeth, also restraining myself from attacking fully.

Maria merely smirked, ignoring how close she'd just come to getting killed.

"Alice, Alice, Alice." Wait, how did she know her name? Alice also seemed shocked at this. Her shock only grew when Maria's smile tensed and her hand wrapped around Alice's neck, lifting her up above her head as she ran, slamming Alice into the wall above her. "I don't think you understand me." Her face was frozen in a mask of cool distaste.

The blonde male was there in an instant, reacting before Alice could. With a roar he ripped Maria from Alice, Alice thumping to the floor with a light thud, looking disturbed. Maria was thrown fifteen feet back but landed on her feet, panting slightly.

Clearly the same cockiness that flowed through Will's veins flowed through hers, and Maria strode forward again, never one to back down from a challenge.

Alice cracked her neck and smiled grimly, but both were cut off as Blondie made to hit Maria again.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It all seemed like some sort of poorly made action/fantasy movie.

That feeling of unreality only increased when Maria simply ducked the vampire's lighting hands and continued stomping towards Alice. Alice met her halfway, understanding before Blondie that this would require actual effort.

Their fight was more fluid than I could ever remember violence being. Neither touched the other, both shifting gracefully out of the way of the others blows. I could see that Alice was growing mildly frustrated. As were the others, and I predicted their next move, but made no move to stop it, this all happening too fast for my comparatively untrained eyes.

I still reacted, but I was sadly an instant too late.

With a roar Blondie lunged back into the fight, moving first as if to slam her in the side of the head. Maria ducked this, falling for his bluff, and didn't have time to doge Blondie's fist as it fell squarely onto her side, sending Maria across the room. Her small frame thumped into the glass wall and slid a foot before I'd flashed over to catch her on with a paw, slowing her slide.

With a slight cry of pain, Maria winced, muttering something profane. She was on her feet though, hand lightly touching her side, checking for bleeding. A rib was protruding at a sick angle, and the bleeding was slow but steady.

"Nice work, Blondie," her voice was weak, even the sarcastic anger not holding the same bite as before. She turned back to the others, smiling coldly, her composure mostly coming back save for the occasional wince, "So," wince, "Are you going to tell us where Bella is? Or what you did with Will?"

She cocked an eyebrow at them, as if _they _were the ones wounded and bleeding on an enemy's carpet.

"No."

Alice's voice was cold, and I sensed she spoke for all of them. While I could understand her anger at being attacked, I still was growling softly as I paced forward, Maria hobbling along, still leaning.

I glared darkly at them as we passed, pausing near the door to stoop so Maria could climb on. We were off into the woods in an instant, I kicking myself for wasting time there.

Maria spoke, her voice holding a laugh. It was clear she'd been thinking about her fight with Alice and sort of Blondie.

"Kicked her ass."

I rolled my eyes in irritation. What on earth was a _human_ doing, trying to fight a vampire?

**Back at the Cullen's…**

Jasper and Alice were standing close together, one of his hands lifted, touching her face gently. Their gazes were locked but all of us could sense the soothing waves rolling off of him. Poor Alice. It seemed like she'd been getting attacked a lot lately.

I would have dwelled on what had happened, picked through their minds for the details, but I had obscenely more important things to attend to.

For example: Bella, cradled in my arms, her screaming having died to desperate, rather clogged-sounding breathing, accompanied with the occasional moan or whimper of pain.

I walked as gently as I could, careful not to jostle her thin, shaking frame.

I heard her heartbeat slow again. It happened every hour or so, it would drop a few beats and Bella would sob in despair.

The others' attention was now fully fixated on Bella and myself. They'd been waiting for me, it was clear. There were few other reasons outside of simply socializing for all of us to gather in the same room.

Carlisle looked like he was about to say something wise and entirely unnecessary at this point and Rosalie looked like she was about to complain at me about something that would magically turn out to be Bella's fault.

Again.

The thing with her overgrown dog showing up snarling in our very back yard had taken her about twelve hours of shouting to get over.

A new record.

And of course, _that _had been Bella's fault. Just as I was sure this incident with the boy and Bella's mutt's sister banging in our door.

"Move."

I growled, before anyone could speak. They parted for me and I walked smoothly upstairs to our rarely touched third floor. In a flash I had the door at the southern end of the hallway open, Bella's still in my arms, and placed Bella carefully in the middle of the queen-sized white bed. It had been here when we'd moved in, and smelled of time and lilacs. As Bella sunk into the feather mattress her delicious smell bloomed around us, softly filling the room like sunlight. I inhaled deeply as I watched her carefully, still aching at her pain.

My fingers, light as a moth's wing, brushed the hair out of her eyes, which were still pinched closed, fighting the pain.

I sighed sadly, my thoughts swirling with several complex emotions.

Firstly, there was my guilt. Guilt at taking Bella's life so suddenly and rudely. Not that I would've preferred to kill her slowly, just that I wished I'd never killed her at all.

Next was my wistfulness as part of me wondered how much happier Bella would be if I'd never shown up to check on her, never given in to the desire to look at her, drink in her facial features and the emotions playing across them.

And finally, behind all of these terrifyingly prominent emotions, was a whisper of victory. Bella was mine again, or would be. This was what she had wanted for oh so long, hadn't she? I was constantly repressing the tiny, evil little voice. No. Clearly, if Bella had wanted it, she would have asked for it or expressed some vague desire to even be near me.

I snapped my hand back almost shamefacedly when Carlisle trailed in, followed by Esme. Esme released yet another small, sad cry at seeing Bella there, changing.

Her hand came down gently as she sat on the bed to stroke Bella's hair, smoothing it into its normal silkiness.

Carlisle looked pained; yet still fully capable of lecturing me on the wrongs of my impulsive move and the many things I now owed Bella and the family for upsetting the "carefully balanced" peace.

I didn't care just then, because Bella parted her lips, now black-red eyes flashing open and started screaming again, the pain returning at full force.

I wept tears that never came at her agony, and refused to leave her when Carlisle thought,

_Come, Edward. Much has happened in your absence…_

I simply shook my head, defying him silently. Carlisle sighed and left, taking Esme with him. I heard their thoughts as they argued downstairs, and the thoughts of the others. Jasper's came through loud and clear, thinking them specifically for me.

_I'm sorry Edward. I can't take this. I love you and respect Bella but I don't want to be here for this._

I heard his passage, and Alice as she ran after him. Of course Jasper wouldn't want to be here. Who _would _want to experience the torment of the change again?

When Bella's piercing screams and cries for Will (and the very rare cry for me, a part of me noted almost smugly) became too much, I rose, tearing myself from her.

Moving past my family in the living room and through the trap door concealed beneath the cream carpeting I tried to calm myself. After a few minutes of completely failing at that I gave up, focusing instead on the dark mass in the corner of the cage in our basement.

The cage, like the bed upstairs, had been there when we moved in. Someone with a circus, perhaps training grizzlies because the bars were two-inch thick titanium, must have formerly owned the house. I let a hand drift along the bars lightly, staring hatefully at the unconscious mass within.

William.

Bella's mutt's strength had been a shock to us all, almost more of a shock than a ninety-pound _human_ matching Alice in a fight.

**And that's all I have time for just now. R&R!**


	24. Chapter 24

**Poor Alice. I'd stop doing that but it's too much fun to pick on her. She's adorable when she's lethal.**

**Er. Technically she's _always_ deadly so.. yeah never mind. Personally I'd like to see her bitch slap someone, or maybe snap in Z formation. **

**That'd be hilarious…**

**ANYWAY**

The mutt rolled over in his sleep, eyebrows pulled together in concern at whatever he was seeing in his dreams. I saw flickers of Bella, and her vanishing; three spots of blood that filed the inside of the mutt's mind were left in her place. He seemed to fall through them into another scene and I pulled away, blocking the streams of his dream out.

He whispered Bella's name and moaned in an unconscious sort of agony.

Upstairs Bella screamed, and I kicked myself inwardly for not being there.

Her mutt arched against the floor with her screaming, breathing speeding up, and hands tensing as his claws almost slid into being. A roar emerged from his parted lips, matching Bella's scream for volume and rumbling through the basement.

He would wake soon, I could sense his consciousness returning, but not soon enough. By the time he was awake the human he and I loved would be gone, and in it's place….

I didn't finish the thought, turning instead and running back upstairs to Bella.

Who knew what she would become?

**Short, I know, but there wasn't much Edward could say now outside of how obscenely tortured he is by this whole dying thing for Bella.**


	25. Chapter 25

**No worries this one will be longer.**

**Disclaimer, my savior from a lawsuit: This is not my book (Twilight) and these are not my characters, despite how much I love them. Will is though, and I'd appreciate it if someone were going to use his character they'd tell me.**

**Is that a sentence? Who knows…**

I woke to silence, and the first peace I'd tasted in three days.

For a moment I simply lay there, staring at the ceiling, letting my mind check me over, making sure none of me was missing or damaged.

The first voice I heard was his.

"Bella..."

My hands, at my sides in my "sleep," lifted themselves delicately. One brushed my neck, searching for the wound that had been mysteriously burning for days. The other went out in search of Edward's assistance. His hand claimed mine in an instant.

I looked around with new eyes. For some reason the world seemed sharper, more focused somehow. Raw, every dark little corner bared to my intense new gaze.

My eyes found their way to Edward, and I sucked in a sharp breath.

I hadn't thought it was possible, but he was even more beautiful than when I'd last seen him.

When I'd last seen him...

The memories came flooding back to me now, or at least the most recent ones. A red truck. Dropping my keys. Him sinking his perfect teeth into my jugular.

For three days after that I had been burning, lost in the fires flowing through my veins.

I snatched my hand back and sat up a bit more, looking around with more anxiety and suspicion.

"Is this Hell?"

A small laugh left his smiling mouth. His eyes, topaz and full of love, reminded me of someone. Someone very important. But, no matter how hard I stressed my mind to remember, the memories refused to return. I let it go. It would come in time.

"No, Bella. Well...maybe. But what would an angel like yourself be doing here, then?"

I bit my lip to keep myself from smiling at his words, the unknown, unseen presence of the "someone" holding me back.

I turned my head to hide my blush, my hand moving self-consciously to my face. My fingertips expected the heat of my face, but met nothing.

My face was icy.

But it wasn't. I just knew, but my fingers didn't sense a change in temperature.

Desperately, I pressed two fingers to my jugular again, hoping to feel the pulse that would assure me I was alive.

I felt nothing.

I was cold inside.

Upward I moved, bounding up and off the couch. I walked to the window, my hands worrying the strange white dress I was in.

The room had blurred with my speed.

I heard Edward get up and "walk" (that's what it was to me now, it seemed. The normal speed to go.) to me, turning me to face him.

I looked up at him with panicked eyes.

"Edward," I was beginning to hyperventilate, "I'm cold on the inside."

Edward looked pained, and moved as if to hold me. I didn't let him. Running, you would refer to it as "flashing," across the room I pressed myself against a white wall. My breathing, fast as it was, would've made me pass out by now were I still human.

Still human...

It was the first time I had consciously admitted that I was no longer human.

Vampire.

I ached for the unknown someone. I felt the ghost of arms, warm and strong, around me.

I let the ghost grow into reality in my mind, shutting my eyes as my breathing slowed.

Calm.

For now.

My eyes flashed open as I sensed Edward. He was standing a little less than a foot away from me, torn between embracing me and respecting my boundaries.

I spoke; tense, restraining my rising anger, between clenched teeth.

"What happened, Edward?"

"I bit you."

"And why didn't you suck the venom out?"

I wasn't sure how I knew this.

"I...ah..."

Edward seemed to be struggling with his explanations. His face twisted and, for the second time that hour I let it go.

Flowing past him the odd, soft white material of my gown-thing moved gently with me. I saw, from the corner of my vampire eye, him tilt his head slightly, inhaling my scent.

We were frozen like that before I spoke, hearing the music in my newfound voice.

"I'm thirsty Edward. Let's get dinner."

I turned back to him at this, smiling at the joke. He saw my expression and broke into an almost painfully beautiful smile.


	26. Chapter 26

**No worries my darling readers, this isn't the end. Of either of them.**

When I woke, finally, I didn't wake gently. I never have, and most likely never will.

My eyes, black and human again, flashed open.

What little light that was in the darkened room glinted dimly off the bars surrounding me. A cage, I was in a cage. Flipping myself up, I ignored my lack of clothing or company. Both would've been forgotten in my rising desperation to escape.

I slammed myself against the 1.75 inch-thick titanium bars of my cage.

Nothing.

I still didn't relax. Instead I returned to pacing my cage, unsure of whether I was more furious or worried.

Where was she? Was Bella all right? If that thing so much as looked at her I would kill him. And I would do so without the long blond one and the huge (although not taller than me thankfully) one interfering and saving his worthless ass.

Again.

Turning back to the bars of my cage I noticed something in one of them.

A line.

It wasn't much of a fault, but it was enough. Balling one hand into a fist and making the other a similar shape I began pounding at the fault.

Pound.

Chink.

Pound.

Chink.

The bar slid unwillingly in two, and I spread these two until they fell from the horizontal beams caging me.

In an instant I had squeezed my muscular frame through the door and was running up the stairs to the first floor.

I paused at the stair entrance, concealed beneath the creamy carpeting. I hadn't realized until then how much I'd missed natural lighting, or just light in general. Not to mention Bella.

Bella.

I was wasting time here, in this house that reeked of them.

I had been about to run when I smelled them approaching. I swore under my breath, frozen with uncertainty.

But all the uncertainty was swept away as they entered the grand room.

Correction: All uncertainty was swept away when he entered the room.

Our eyes met in an instant and time stopped.

But I didn't.

With a huge, furious roar I lunged at him. My muscles had coiled and released, sending me, poised to phase and kill him, across the space to him.

I could already feel my nails sliding into ten long, lethal claws.

But I never got the chance top so much as scar his pretty face again. Because, when I was a mere three inches from his surprised face, something else slammed me away.

I looked up from where I was sprawled, feeling my black irises dilate as my fury rose.

It was another one of them.

I spat the blood from my mouth, baring my teeth as I prepared to attack both of them. I could see the other was a female now, with long, dark brown hair too perfect to be real.

The growl was stilled in my throat as the female turned around so I could see her face, beautiful even in death, and full lips that were just as full as they'd been when I'd known her.

Bella.

A vampire.

Agony rocked my body, and a new sound tore itself from my mouth and into the air. It was a terrible, aching sort of moaning-sobbing sound. I lifted a hand to choke back the noise but it never made it as far as my mouth.

I could feel the strength, the fury, draining out of me as grief washed over me, pulling me deeper with each moment that passed.

I fell limp, still sobbing. My hands covered my face trying to caw it away, anything to stop seeing her like this. Anything to stop knowing what she was now. Anything.

The others were on me now, granite arms lifting my limp form roughly. They were just starting to drag me outside when I heard someone halt their process.

"Stop!"

Bella.

Despite the vampirical note that all vampires' voices possessed, the note hers had too now, I heard a bit of Bella in the word. The old Bella. The human Bella.

They stilled and I felt an icy hand on my face. I turned my head; my harsh sobbing also stilled for now, to gaze into her sad, crimson eyes. Tugging one hand free from their grasp I reached out and touched her face similarly, wincing at how cold and angular she'd become.

"Oh Will..." I could see her in pain as well, and knew that she was suffering as well.

"Hey red-eyed girl," I said, trying to keep my voice cool but the anguish was still evident. I was crying again by the end of my words. "Whatcha' doing?"

She leaned her forehead against mine, and we both let the grief wash over us. It pulled me under quickly, greedy.

And I never came back up.


	27. Chapter 27

**Oh my Poptart, I think I love my fans now. I mean, I liked you guys before simply because you were reading it, but… AHHH!**

**-Cough-**

**I'm fighting the strong urge to jump up and down, screaming with joy.**

** . **

**Instead, I think I'll just post my five favorite reviews (I say 5 because otherwise I'd be posting like every single good review I got lol) **

**Or at least the 5 I can remember because I delete those little notice things that come and tell me "You've got reviews!"**

**lizziemcclure: OH poor Will! I feel so bad for him. But Bella is certainly lucky, I mean she just always seems to be around when Will just so happens to be naked! I do NOT like Edward anymore. I mean Will and Bella's relationship is so much better then Bella and Edward's. I hope Will is ok. UPDATE SOON, PLEASE AND AS always GREAT WRITING.**

**The Forsaken Apple: I was too lazy to log in…sob oh no a forbidden love between Bella and Will and I just love Will. But he is not to die please dont die please. I sweat this is like romeo and juliet I suppose. Anyways updates very son I must know wat happens. Edward damn you for your selfish/monster instincts. smoothes shirt after ranting im fine now. Updat!**

**Chrissienuil: ah no bella can't be a vamp..please don't breake bella and will up..he is so fucking cute i don't want them to lose each other**

**Never mind forget about it, I can't remember any more. –Sweats-**

**Sorry to you peeps out there with grammar and a keyboard.**

**Okay, Bella's perspective. Picking up from exactly where Chapter 26 left off… (Minor mistakes in the last one I know. I reread it after publishing it and winced.) **

But I did. I had too.

When Edward came to my side, touching me lightly on the shoulder, reminding me of what I was now, what responsibilities that entailed, I forced myself back to my unlife.

For a small moment, I fought violently against the urge to weep bitter tears that would never come, but in the end the emotion drained from my face and my voice was cold.

"Get him out of here, Emmett, Rosalie, Jasper." Slice, it had seemed, was entirely uninterested in restraining a grief-torn werewolf.

No one questioned my command. Maybe pity drove them not to say anything about it, maybe simple shock at how quickly my memories were returning. More was coming to me now, the red truck was _mine, _oddly enough, and I seemed to recall a rather over weight man, balding, smiling down at me with a flushed face.

Charlie. My dad, apparently.

The others cast him out of their home (it was still just that, _theirs_). He landed in the rain-wet grass of the front yard with a thump, still sobbing harshly. My own anguish tore at my insides; leaving wounds far greater than the _one_ Edward had left behind him. At least then I hadn't had to separate myself from him, throw him away like the dog I now fully realized he was.

He had reeked. When I entered the room, the smell of _hound_ repelling me.

But…

Through the reeking scent that was sending messages to my mind to kill him, I smelled the old Will. Dark, he smelled like the night, the endless indigo, fresh, the delicious scent that, even as a human, I could almost _taste _when we were close together. Yes, even as an immortal monster sworn to destroy his kind, I still could appreciate his scent. This knowledge made me ache with a sorrow too deep to bear.

Alice was at my side, and I realized that all of them had been watching me as I'd been remembering his smell.

"Bella…" She was looking up at me with worry in her big black eyes. My face remained cold, slightly haughty as I answered her unspoken question.

"Bella doesn't live her anymore."

There was silence for a moment before Rosalie, God's gift to people not pissed off enough already, spoke.

"Whether or not Bella lives here she still has to hunt. Edward, no one else gives a damn anymore, you do it."

Rosalie turned to leave, but froze when she heard Emmett say quietly, but still confidently,

"I give a damn, Rose."

Apparently my being a vampire had severely eased the loathing we'd so carefully kept, for all she did was roll her eyes, sigh, and continue to walk out. Emmett followed her quickly.

Jasper laughed shortly, the room still tense, "Someone's Rosalie-whipped."

Alice smiled quickly at him before looking back at me, and then to Edward.

Edward, oh Edward.

Jasper gave me a suspicious look as he felt with me the rise of dark anticipation within me.

"Ah.." he paused, and I was almost worried that he would warn Edward of the dark impulses brewing, "Edward, why don't you take her? Now would probably be a good time to figure things out."

Edward merely nodded, and we left, burning a path through the forest with our speed. We ignored each other at first, but in a moment I found myself getting into the unbelievable rate we were moving. I tried going faster, and found the trees becoming nearly invisible, Edward the only thing I could clearly see as he matched my speed. He let me win our little race, merely flicking his head, telling me where the nearest animals would most likely be.

We found the herd of deer in an instant, and Edward stood back, watching as I let my instincts take over.

In a bloody, blurred moment I was on the last of them, their lifeless carcasses tossed into the woods. The hot red liquid flowed into my system, warming me for the first time in what seemed like ages.

And with the warmth, a power came to me, building steadily within me.

And with that returned my fury at Edward.

"Better, Bella?"

his voice was soft, caring, and concerned for my emotional state. In that instant I didn't care whether or not he still loved me, or that I myself still loved him on some tiny, repressed level. All the mattered was my vengeance, which had been dormant for far too long.

I smiled up at Edward, my fury just barely evident.

I was up in an instant, tackling him, my nails shredding through his shirt and flawless chest to hook him to me as we thumped to the ground with him beneath me.

"Much better."

My smile was full of the sickening contempt and blinding wrath I felt. Edward only looked sorrowfully up at me, lovingly restraining himself. It made me nauseous to think that he could possibly still think he loved me.

As I was about to demonstrate.

My lips peeled back, roaring into his face, letting the feral sound tear itself from my throat.

"Edward..." I hissed from between my clenched teeth, still glaring hatefully down at him.

My fingers dug in, tearing new holes in his flawless skin. I straddled him, hunched over him, untamable and enraged.

"I love you." was all he said, whispering sweetly and sadly. This only served to inflame my ire **(Yes, that is a word it's a synonym for anger).**

"Why?"

There are no words for how stark raving insane I was with fury at that moment.

No words.

But still, as I tore at him, roaring my fierce grief at everything he'd taken from me.

My life, my love, my family…

Gone. Because of _him_, because _he_ couldn't control his impulses. Evidently, neither could I.

I looked back up at him once, glaring, and froze. He looked so sad, so utterly helpless where fighting me was concerned. His entire torso was bleeding slowly, steadily, from various wounds. Yet he looked so sorry, topaz eyes so filled with a love I'd spent so long trying to forget.

With a sigh of frustration, I sank back down onto him, his ivory skin, so like mine now, already pulling itself back together. I lifted myself up slightly, looking down at his perfect face. With one hand I traced the light scar along his cheekbone. He must've gotten recently, for it was still there.

"Edward.." I began, but stopped.

What was I supposed to say? I'd gone form being content, full of the blood of a doe, to furious, to (barely) calm.

"Edward, I-" I shut myself up again, covering my face with my hands as I groaned the words, "Oh, what am I going to _do_?"

Suddenly I remembered that I was still straddling Edward, looking back down, embarrassed, standing up quickly.

Turning from him I tried to ignore the voice of my love for Edward wailing within my heart, telling me to turn back to him and beg him to make things right again, like he had so long ago.

But those days were done, and what's gone is gone. No use crying over it, because vampires don't cry.

Right?

**Sorry for how depressing this one is. IT'S STILL NOT THE END, NEVER FEAR.**

**Lol. Sorry 'bout that.**


	28. Chapter 28

**Disclaimer: Back, lawyers, back! -beats back w/ newspaper- I didn't write Twilight!**

With a final hiss of frustration and a glare back at Edward, I left, running back to the house.

Too many things to put in order, and Edward's personal guilt was not something I really felt like dealing with just now, despite Jasper's advice.

Edward merely gave me a look as if to say, _Please don't leave me just yet, please…_ and the look on his face nearly made me give in to the urge to embrace him.

Nearly.

Regardless of this impulse I ran, the trees fading into what was becoming a familiar blur while still individual, each tree sharply defined for the moments they were in my line of sight.

The house appeared before me abruptly. My ruby eyes flicked to the front yard, sucking in a quick, pained breath at the blades of grass that'd been bent when they'd-_we'd_ technically- thrown him out. I could smell where the other's had come for him, their huge paws leaving imprints in the rain-fresh grass. I didn't bother trying to decipher what'd happened next, it hurt too much.

Moving inside the house I was met by Alice, whose arms were crossed, looking almost unsure of herself. But not quite. A slow smile spread across her face and I felt a similar sensation happening to my facial expression.

As pissed as I was at Edward, I really had missed the Cullen's company.

Alice and I walked (vampire pace!) upstairs.

We were avoiding Carlisle, it was obvious. I was privately grateful to Alice for letting me delay that conversation just a little bit longer.

"We need to find you a room, Bella."

We were on the roof now, sitting on the edge of the roof, looking out over the vast expanse of forest surrounding Forks, a hint of the ocean just barely within view.

"Unless," her voice was playfully teasing. It was so good to be friends with her again. I tried not to think of exactly how this renewed friendship had came to be, "you're going to be sharing a room with Edward?"

I laughed briefly, repressing the tension at the mention of the murderous fool who this family expected me to spend the rest of eternity with.

"No, I don't think so Alice. Edward and I… aren't the best of friends just now."

Alice smiled slightly, without humor, looking down to the earth far below us.

"Yeah, I saw…"

I knew she didn't mean "saw" in the sense of witnessing it, but was referring to her visions. My memories were mostly back now, or so I thought.

At the time I'd been more concerned with where I was supposed to go from there, and whom I'd bring with on that journey.

Alice tugged me back to earth, (or the roof whatever) with her words.

"So which room do you want? The one you woke up in?"

The white room with terrifyingly plain walls.

As a human that wouldn't have bothered me, I might've found them lovely in the right light. But as a vampire, with the memory of waking up there, no one but someone who'd screwed me over (not literally) to keep me company.

Not a nice way to start my un-life.

And now I found myself craving the elegance of the outdoors, walls becoming too confining to bear. Maybe it was that I'd awoken in such an bleak place. I wondered if it were the same for Carlisle with potatoes.

"No."

My voice was cold. Alice got it though, and backed off.

"You know, though, that we're going to have to put you through the Initiation if you want to be a Cullen."

The first response that popped into my head was a spiteful "But what if I don't' give a damn about being a Cullen?" Instead I said, laughing slightly,

"Please tell me that it doesn't involve something as insane as dragging me to ten major cities on an amazingly expensive shopping spree."

Alice cackled.

"Bingo."

I swallowed my fear, or tried to. This was going to be a long week.

**Hmm, do you think I should do a shopping scene? I'm not entirely sure… Oh well. If something pops into my head I'll type it up, post it, and you'll yell at me for being crazy. That's what happens normally if you haven't noticed lol.**

**Wow I wonder how many lol's I type in a day? **


	29. Chapter 29

**No shopping scene. That'd break all the angst-y joy I've worked so hard to build.**

**Chapter 29**

I had just gotten in and was looking around, the only words that'd passed my mouth being,

"Hey, where's Alice?"

I heard her voice faintly from the roof, beautiful and tinkling, sounding exactly the way I'd expect moonlight to sound if it could speak, or maybe molten silver. Bella's voice came every now and again. I smiled slowly. At least they were talking and not screaming at each other. Alice's been worried about this and I could sense traces of her relief from here.

I wasn't quite as attuned to Bella, so it took a moment before the anvil to land.

I had made it to the second floor before Bella's grief started nagging at me, but I ignored it. I'd been able to stand being around Edward after he'd left, I'd thought I could deal with her pain.

I couldn't.

I was on the roof, Alice had just turned to smile at me,, and Bella looked at me.

The anvil fell, to say the least.

When her vivid ruby eyes met mine, however briefly, her emotions had been opened up to me, pouring over me like burning water, scalding me, imprinting my senses with her agony.

My eyes widened and I staggered back, all traces of light humor gone. I clutched at my heart as I felt the continuous shredding of Bella's, the way her insides were tearing themselves apart. Her hands trembled slightly, presumably with the crushing weight of loving someone she was destined to destroy.

And rage. Rage was coiled within her, glaring out at all of us, waiting to be unleashed.

Also a terrifying emptiness, patiently waiting to be filled. Whether or not her heart would always be that…hollow was unfortunately a mystery to everyone save Alice (maybe). I winced, lips parting, strangling a sad moan at her pain.

You see, this is why it sucks to be empathic.

Her eyes narrowed, and I felt a stirring of suspicion, and the fury within her smile coldly and stretch its claws, preparing to raise its head.

Before it could I did what a vampire always does when threatened like that. I grabbed Alice and jumped off the roof with her.

We landed with a very quiet thump, and Alice looked curious and slightly troubled at my actions.

"Jazz? What's-"

"Alice she's in monumental agony, and not very stable."

"Well, I hate to be the one to tell you this but no duh. Welcome to the club."

I sighed. While she was right, we _all_ had been tense lately. I went on anyway, it was urgent that Alice know this, for reasons that have always been unknown to me. I'm not sure of the reasoning behind my telling her everything that bothers me, or pleases me, I just did.

She's Alice.

My voice was an insistent whisper.

"Alice! She's worse than Edward was! And furious at all of us, yes _all_."

Her big, beautiful eyes were wide as she processed all of this, and then they narrowed. She looked back up at my still concerned face and smiled determinedly.

"Jasper Hale, you think I don't know that?" Of course I didn't. I'd never be so stupid as to think Alice didn't get it. I was just warning her. And she knew that, but went on anyway, trying to convince me as much as herself. "Bella needs us, there's no one else for her anymore. Edward's actions have quite effectively stolen her prior life from her with no warning, no chance to say goodbye or prepare to have to leave them all behind. Right now, we need to ignore that final shred of reason nagging at the back of our minds and do what the only thing we can: Be there for Bella. What else can we do?"

We stared at each other for a moment before I sighed, looking away, into the forest.

"Fine. But be careful, Alice. We've already lost her and Edward to this, I couldn't stand losing you too."

I left then, running to hide with Emmett in the library. He'd been moping, and misery loves company.

**Okay I was going to make the second chunk of this about the wolves, but that's too long so I stuffed it into Chapter 30.**

**The Breaking.**

**R&R!**


	30. Chapter 30

**AHH! I didn't think it was possible to love a bunch of people (you, my dear readers) who I've never met and most likely never will, but I do!**

**This must be what the Pillsbury Doughboy feels like, loved by the masses, yet he only knows the occasional winner who gets to come on his little show and poke him in the belly.**

**Okay focusing on the story…**

**What happened to Will after he got tossed onto the Cullen's front lawn…**

**(Jacob's POV)**

We had been waiting for him to come back out o their house, still clinging to the threads of what remained of the treaty.

Will landed with a thud, the grass, wet from the rain, cushioning his fall.

The Pack padded out to him, and Sam was the first to react.

_Jacob, Paul, carry him back._

Sam ignored Will's sobs, and the coldness in his thoughts forced the rest of us into action, away from plans of revenge.

Paul used his muzzle to flip Will up and onto my back. For the second time in 24 hours I was carrying someone from his family on my back.

We stopped at Will's house; Emily had gone there earlier to patch up Maria.

We shivered back to human form, and carried Will between us into the house. Shuffling past the living room we careful dropped him onto the giant king bed his parents had left for him and Maria. I still hadn't figured out where Will slept, normally.

Maria was asleep there, eyebrows pulled down in anger at something going on in her dream. Her eyes flashed open as soon as Will landed.

Will had grown disturbingly silent in the past few minutes, and was now staring at the ceiling, barely breathing.

"Will." Maria said groggily. Clearly the painkillers Emily had force-fed her weren't out of her system yet. "Will, where's Bella? Will…"

Will didn't move, merely wincing at the sound of Bella's name.

"Will? Will!" Maria shook his shoulder, and sat up slightly. She began to pound his chest when he didn't respond, her extraordinary strength bruising the skin of his exposed chest. "Will!? Will, wake up, I'm here, Bella loves you, _I_ love you, Will?!" She raised herself a little more and slapped him across the face, nearly screaming, her voice drenched in desperate panic, "Will! Wake up, damn it! Get up! Get the fuck up, Will-!" Emily's tried to grab her arm, Paul having gone with the others to grab pants

Maria calmed down, dropping onto Will's chest, still patting his face, and trying to pull him back into his mind.

"Will, you can't do this, you can't leave me. Not like this."

She continued whispering these pleas, and Will continued ignoring her and the rest of the living world. Whatever he'd seen at the Cullen's god-forsaken house must have sent him into this state of shock.

Sam entered then, clad in a pair of Will's numerous black sweatpants. He tossed a pair to me and Maria deftly pulled some onto Will. I wondered how many times as a child she'd done that, to get so good at it.

We were close enough to our wolf forms that his thoughts still whispered in our minds, still had the authority of an alpha.

_Will, look at us._

Will ignored him,, so Sam growled, forcing all of us closer to the wolf form, making his word ever nearer to law.

_Will. You are going to wake up. And you are going to help us in this war. You are going to get the hell out of that bed and run with us, back to the Cullen's to hunt. It's been too long since any of us have tasted leech-flesh, now seems like a good time to start._

Will obeyed this time, but his face retained its coldness. He flipped his legs out and over the edge of the bed, toes touching the wooden floors. He moved past and through us to stand at in the doorway, staring down Sam.

_He is mine. Edward. The bronze-haired one, is mine to kill._

_No. _Sam was staring back, and neither blinked through this entire conversation. Both's eyes were fully pitch black.

_Yes. He killed Bella, took her light away, from the world… From me. _

A snarl escaped Will's lips.

_And for that he dies._

Sam merely glared a moment longer before nodding once, eyes narrowed slightly.

_Fine, but don't get yourself killed. We'll need you in the coming war. Run with us now._

_Of course._

And we were off, all of us, striding out and to the front yard, leaving Will's various pairs of pants in a pile by the door.

Roaring as a whole, we transformed and were off, into the woods, ignoring anyone who may have been watching.

Our paws pounded the earth, and the rest of us cast worried whispers concerning Will's silence. Normally he was anxious to get back to Bella, always.

It got a little annoying, but was very sweet.

Now he merely pushed on ahead of us, a hollowness where we could normally feel his heart beat. What I mean is that while we could feel it, it wasn't _there_, his heart that is.

All we heard from him, while the rest of us were grimly celebrating not having to hold back when we met a bloodsucker, was

_Kill as many as you like, but he's mine._

_Hey Will, what happened to Bella?_

Will merely cast a dark look at Jared and sped up. The images of what he'd seen pulsing through our minds as he remembered.

A cage, dark and reeking of _them_…Will pounding his way out, lunging and then looking up, the image of Bella's new red eyes staring back into Will's with horror, the feeling of Will's sobs shaking his body, now our body in the memory.

Sam howled, once a long mourning sound, deeper and older than anything we'd heard. The rest of us howled with him, grieving for the loss of Bella. Will merely sped up, running flank to flank with Sam. It wasn't a challenge, just a show of how eager he was to shred a certain leech. We waited on him as we howled, our various voices singing our loss to the woods.

Will raised his head form his run and joined us, the howl sending a shiver of ache through us. It was long, low, and terribly sad.

We let the howling go, the echoes chasing other living things from our path.

Up ahead we were beginning to smell the faint trace of one of their trails..

Just as we were about to follow it to see if it truly was one of them, another howl sounded then.

A female howl.

Whipping around our respective eyes narrowed, but we could feel Will rolling his, and moving forward to greet whatever was coming through the woods at us.

Maria.

Her wolf form was slimmer than ours, sleeker. Her long fur the same dark silver as Will's. All four of her limbs were muscled, as if she'd been doing this for a very long time. Her elegant form spoke of a deadly power, and I could feel a smile beginning to spread across Sam's mind. Don't ask me how; it's a wolf thing.

_Maria._

_Hello Sam._

I'm not sure which one of us was more surprised at that moment, either that Maria was a wolf or that she understood the whole shared-thought thing.

Maria's shoulder came to about my shoulder's height, possibly a little past it.

Will stalked up to her and growled, low in the back of his throat.

_Get out of here._

_No._

_This is not your war, you remember as well as I do the rules set down by the Elders._

_Screw the Elders. Since when have we listened to them anyway? Female wolves should be allowed to fight._

_We're listening this time._

Now that they were close together, contrasting each others' coats, I noticed that Maria's had flecks of a lighter silver while Will's was flecked with a smoky black.

_You're being sexist, you know. Not letting me fight just because I'm female._

_Yes, and no. That's not my only reason._

_Oh really? Explain how not letting me fight the bitches that took Bella from us just because I'm a woman makes you not sexist?_

_I don't want to lose you to._

Maria paused, looking away before glaring back up at him.

_You won't lose me. I'm just as good at fighting as… _Maria paused again, looking around the gathering until she spotted Paul, and then looked back at Will, _Paul. _

_Everyone's as good as Paul._

_Hey!_

Paul snarled, but Will and Maria ignored him.

_Let me fight. You know I can._

_Yes…_

_Besides, I've got a score to settle with a certain leech. No way she gets to have Blondie smack me aside and call it quits. The bitch is going down._

Will smiled, although the expression was not warm.

_That's my sister. Let's go._

_Finally._

Maria rolled her eyes at him and we were off (again). Her speed was surprising, easily matching my pace. She didn't bother to try to make conversation; there was too much tension.

We burst into a clearing near the river, and what we saw froze us for a moment.

**And that's all Jacob's got to say. Will's chappie is next, sorry to all those I told otherwise.**


	31. Chapter 31

**Disclaimer: I didn't write Twilight, I didn't create _Buffy The Vampire Slayer,_and I didn't kill Colonel Mustard in the parlor with the candlestick.**

**Also, peeps have been wondering why her eyes are red and crap. It's because at first young vampires' eyes are red because of all the human blood in their system. They fade after a few years or so, and change depending on the kind of blood THEY'VE DRANK (sorry, just getting a wee bit pissed at the people who have stories where, right after she's changed, Bella has topaz eyes) See Stephanie Meyer's website for the full explanation. **

**Okay, backing up a sec just to explain what the Pack (plus Maria) saw.**

While Alice was on the ground whispering fiercely with Jasper, I decided to take a little run. I needed to clear my head and running seemed like a good way to do so.

What was I going to do about Edward?

While I had other things to worry about (how to deal with Charlie and Renee, my school…) the image of him, sad and broken, on the ground kept coming back top me. I sighed in frustration. Even in death that beautiful fool had sway over me.

I hated it so much I was practically choking on the emotion.

Yet, at the same time…

I was _sorry_ for him.

This troubled me, and I paused on top of one of mountains surrounding the "baseball field" the Cullen's sometimes used.

Images of Edward, before and after my change, swirled through my head, and I pressed my fingers into my temples, trying to fight my stupid heart.

Sucking in a breath I allowed myself to think of the one thing more important than Edward, than myself, than this entire world.

Will.

Where my mind had been swamped with faint memories of Edward before my change, Will's came flooding into my mind.

Again I felt the ghost of his arms around me, pressing me to him, and I could almost hear him whispering into my hair.

My name, over and over again; he'd spoken it like something too precious for the air to hear.

I smiled slowly, sadly, standing now, letting myself remember.

The russet, satin skin of his flesh stretched tight over the leonine muscles wrapped around his long frame.

The image of Will shielding his face from the sun, squinting, black eyes flicking down to mine and grinning, reaching out his other hand to shield me from said UV rays.

"William…"

I whispered his name, and the wind that lives only on top of the mountains carried it away, blew it into nothing.

I curled up in a tiny ball, hugging myself tightly. I found myself longing for the hole Edward had left, because at least then it'd just been that, a hole, something Will could fill in just by looking at me, or saying my name.

"_Bella…"_

I heard him calling me again, and wept, the tears invisible but still there. I clung to the edges of the memories of our love, trying to forget what I'd become and how the thing I now was had ruined such perfection.

"Bella."

This time, when my name was spoken, it was solid, more than a memory.

But the voice, musical as it was, was not Will's, and therefore meant nothing to me.

"Bella."

I opened my eyes and saw feet. Still in the fetal position as I was, that was all I could really see of anyone over four inches tall.

The feet were tiny, and I looked up to meet Alice's eyes, worried for me but trying to conceal it behind more innocent emotions.

"After much consultation of the high and mighty Holder of the Family Account, we've decided that you need only one thing to fully become one of us."

I cracked a small smile, waiting.

"A car."

My smile faded.

Before I could open my mouth to respond A pair of thick, icy arms wrapped around me and hefted me into the air.

"Put me down! Emmett!"

I couldn't help my self. I was laughing, pounding at his arms, struggling in vain. His booming laugh shook me as he started running with me, towing me to his car, Alice following, laughing.

"Now, now, Bella. Don't make us get Jasper out here."

"You better not even be _thinking _about using Jasper's powers to-"

Another roll of laughter cut me off, shaking me, almost making my teeth click.

"Ha, I wasn't referring to his powers so much as his tranquilizer gun. We used it on Edward when we dragged him out of South America, you wouldn't believe Jasper's aim."

I was torn between snickering at that mental image or checking to see if Jasper was positioned anywhere, ready to sniper me.

My eyes flicked to the house. Jasper was standing on the front porch, relaxing in the swing with Esme and Carlisle beside him. I still hadn't seen Rosalie, but she was the last thing from my mind when Jasper loaded his gun and waved to me with a smile on his face.

I swallowed my worry with some difficulty, the grief of the previous moment forgotten (for now).

In the back seat, Jasper and Rosalie perched on either side of me, both entirely ready to slam me back into the seat to keep me from fleeing.

Alice seemed to be arguing with Emmett over the right car to buy me. It seemed that I wasn't going to get any choice in this little initiation thing.

I had pretty much sat still, going along quietly as they say, until I saw where we were going.

"No! No Ferrari's, Alice!"

I screamed, doing my best to claw my way past Rosalie and Jasper, who were now smirking at each other and ignoring my struggles.

My eyes widened as I saw what Alice clearly had planned for me, and Jasper clapped a hand over my mouth, waves of soothing seeping through.

Rosalie's astonishingly beautiful laughter followed us through the doors as Alice led the way, Emmett dragging me again.

**I said this would be Will's chapter, and all there's been so far is Bella getting dragged into a car dealership. **

**Will's part will come in later never fear.**

Surprisingly, I was in a much better mood after purchasing what was possibly the only car I had ever thought of as sexy.

A Lamborghini. Sleek and dark silver.

Just one shade darker than Will's fur billowing in the wind, but I tried not to think about that. The black leather interior smelled better than I remember leather smelling as a human.

It was dark, and driving it gave me a speed high I hadn't experienced since running with Edward earlier today.

Edward…

My heart, of its own accord, ached for him, but I repressed it. That, the forgiving of Edward, would come later, if at all.

But such depressingly confusing thoughts of forgiving him were far from my mind at the moment, as I drove my sexy new car down the highway, the car almost levitating with my speed. The other Cullen's were in the back seat, calmly discussing what we'd do next, entirely unperturbed by my "need for speed."

This thought slowed me considerably, almost within the legal speed boundaries.

Almost.

"This is fabulous…" I never imagined myself using the word fabulous in reference to a vehicle. Well, maybe once but that hardly counted. The Cullen's laughter filled the car,

Jasper's next words, however, were considerably less welcome.

"Take a detour through this part of the forest, the trees are pretty far apart and Edwrd's in this direction.

I slammed on the breaks.

Another fabulous thing about the car, it stopped on a dime. We nearly did a flip, but it still stopped.

I turned around slowly and shook my head at Jasper.

"No."

"Oh, c'mon Bella… It's not a party without someone to read everyone's thoughts. Well, except yours of course…"

My eyes narrowed, and I fought Jasper as he tried to pull my barely-gone bliss back up. Alice was making puppy dog eyes at me, and it was getting difficult to keep from laughing and obliging.

"Bella, it's either this or I steal your car and drive it to Mexico."

Finally I laughed. The engine came to life instantly when I turned the keys back.

"Why would you go to Mexico, Rosalie?"

"Emmett and I might have to elope if Edward proves to be much more of a killjoy."

The car laughed, easily ignoring the comment about their brother. It was Rose, what did anyone expect?

"Fine," I said finally giving in, "But I won't 'party' with you crazy people. I may have to abandon you all there and take this sexy little thing onto the road again."

"Wow, Bella. I didn't know you thought cars were sexy."

Emmett had laughter behind his voice. I scoffed before saying, "Not _cars_, Emmett, just car. This car, to be exact."

Laughs echoed briefly into the woods after us, my vampire reflexes saving us from ruining my car.

The ride was a dream, or the closest I'd probably come to dreaming _now_.

The others sobered quickly when we came to where Edward was. I felt almost bad for him. Correction, I felt bad for him but not bad enough to climb out of the car with the rest of them to go inspect him to see if he was okay as he stared blankly at the river, exactly where I'd left him, chest healed but still stained with his dark blood.

The moved to him silently, gathering around him, Alice tilting to peer into his eyes, then back up at me. She was the only one looking at me, and the only one who knew this was my fault.

The others caught up quickly.

Four sets of dark gold eyes flicked up to my red ones, and I looked away, rubbing one arm awkwardly as if to warm myself., entirely at a loss as what to say. I hadn't felt so completely at a loss for words in the longest time.

But words would soon return to me as Rosalie, goddess of random vengeance, spoke up.

"Bella! What the Hell?!"

She was in my face in an instant, but muscles tensed, straining not to hit me. I could have, should have, backed down from her, begged for forgiveness, but I didn't. It seemed that my grief and anger over being so viciously torn from Will had replaced my sense of right and wrong with something rather skewed.

Instead of following a logical plan of action, I tensed as well, looking at Rosalie through dangerously narrowed eyes. A low hiss escaped my parted lips, warning her in an animalistic way that she was about to cross a line not worth crossing.

Before the others could intervene and reinstate some sense of reason, Rosalie had accepted my challenge, roared and tackled me to the ground. She swung to hit me, a blow hat would've easily killed me as a human, but my hand snapped up to catch her around the wrist, just barely stopping her fist's progress. Curling up, I shot both legs up, kicking her violently off of me.

Flipping up I roared fully, letting my fury sing out to the forest and my new family. We lunged at each other, Rosalie and I, and were tearing at each other in an instant, locked in violence.

We were both trying to bite the other one, tear out the jugular, but neither of our arms, still locked, budged to allow this.

Emmett was there before half a second had passed, tearing me from Rose and throwing me. I landed on my toes, crouched, snarling, angry at being disrupted.

Emmett's warning snarl was as deep as the ocean, and just as powerful. My eyes narrowed. He was prepared to kill me if I tried to hurt Rose again. I ached horribly at the thought that no one would do the same for me now, but repressed it quickly, not wanting to hear the tiny voice in the back of my head whispering that Edward still would.

Rosalie growled rather smugly from behind the protection of Emmett's broad chest, and I snapped.

I lunged at her, and before Emmett or the others could stop her she'd slipped away from Emmett and was in the air, meeting me halfway.

She was on top of me again, eyes glaring down into mine. She tried to tear at the marble flesh of my chest and my hands stuck hers away, using some previously undiscovered muscles in my body to flip us so I was on top, choking her. My mouth opened, razor teeth parting as a hiss escaped. Venom coated my teeth.

I was almost smiling, (evilly) down at her. Rose was about to hit me, a move that most likely would have ended in me getting pinned by Jazz.

What happened next froze all of us.

It was probably our absorption with the fight that kept us from sensing the wolves, because when they burst through the woods into the clearing.

My head turned slowly, almost reluctantly, terrified of seeing _him_, to lock eyes with the wolves.

Will.

**Will's Point of View…**

Bella.

She was amazingly even more beautiful than I recalled, and the look on her face, the flash of longing and grief, stripped away my fury momentarily.

A low sound began deep in my chest, the mournful ache, but I quickly stifled it when a wind blew their scent fully into our faces, violently reminding us of what they-what Bella- were.

Instead of the sad sound, a low, rumbling snarl escaped my chest, and I stepped forward. Sam knew this was my fight, and for once let me take over.

All of them seemed to be present, minus the alpha male and female. The god cursed bastard you refer to as Edward was up too, all of the depression we could smell rolling off his unflesh unapparent as he snarled back, moving to stand next to Bella who was also up now.

Blondie was quaking with tension, the emotions he must have felt rolling off of this little gathering were clearly almost too much for him. His next words stated the Pack's purpose very clearly. He spoke to the leeches only.

"War. Vengeance. Grief. They are here on a dark mission."

The big one merely smiled grimly and cracked his knuckles.

"About time."

Paul roared from behind me, and the rest of us joined him in the challenge. I waited until the echoes from the others was almost over before taking a step forward, tilting my head back, and howling.

The sound was deeper than before, more raw and challenging. It claimed the woods and the mountains, and the answering calls of some of the wolves were heartening, their calls of support and kinship warming my frozen heart just a little.

But it was enough.

Focusing again on the vampires I roared again, the sound loud enough to blow Bella's long, silken brown hair back a little.

She smirked, lips twitching up at the corners coldly. It was something I'd never seen her do before.

Maria was the first of us to run forward, comparatively small frame fluid and muscular. The rest of us thundered after her, closing the small gap quickly.

The leeches turned tail instantly; they knew it would have been a losing battle for them.

We were after them in an instant, paws pounding the forest floor as we began to catch up to the big one. He was the slowest, the god cursed one and Bella being the fastest of the group

Jacob roared, teeth bared, and leapt through the air, pinning the big one to the ground, already engaged in a fight. Paul paused with him to help take down the big one, who was up and fighting back, roaring with fury. The blond female was back now too, fighting, roaring...

I watched their strength fail with hardly a though. The bronze one still lived, and this would not do.

With a roar I sped up, ignoring the faint calls of reason from Sam, who had stopped to make sure the blonde female and huge male stayed down.

Forest blurred past me, and I let what little was left of the person I had once been die. A new, darker version began to piece itself together within me, and the rising wind blew the ashes of my former self away.

**Sorry about how long this one took. The original version of it was about three times as long, but disturbing so I decided it would be more T appropriate to cut it.**


	32. Chapter 32

**Nothing to say. Except this:**

**I randomly compose music videos (normally just musicals from the random crap that goes on around me. Nothing better to do I suppose, and it really can brighten a day when you can practically see your history professor bursting into song about how poorly people did on their essays) in my head, and it gets so freaking annoying. Although, I'm probably to blame, considering how I listen to music while typing this. Like, for this chapter, I listened to Come What May from _Moulin Rouge! _during Will's part. I know I'm crazy, but luckily in that kind of cool, Sabeck, way, not the scary depressing way.**

I ran, Jasper and Edward also running.

The wolves were frighteningly close. I hadn't quite realized how many of them there were, and had that been a _female_ back there?

I was so desperate to get back to Carlisle and Esme, to figure out what to do, or at least even out the numbers a little, that I didn't know when Emmett went down, and Rosalie ran back to find him.

Or even when Bella broke away from us, running off somewhere unknown.

We broke out of the woods and into the clearing surrounding our house, only three left of what had been six of us.

Carlisle had heard us coming, read the looks on our faces, and had gotten our cars out. Rosalie's modifications of late had improved their engines to the point that they could outrun most of the unnatural things one might need to outrun.

Like, oh say, a pack of enraged werewolves that had grown beyond our ability to manage without losing one of our own.

One of our own…

Rosalie. Emmett.

Bella.

Carlisle, Esme, and Jasper were in Carlisle's car. My eyes flashed over to Edward.

_Go, _I thought, _find her. We'll get Emmett and Rose._

He nodded mutely and took off; taking a path that would keep him out of the wolves sight, and hopefully to Bella. She kept changing her mind, and the futures flickering behind my eyes were vague as it was.

For once, I didn't know what was going to happen. This was an alien feeling; one I hadn't experienced in eternities. I repressed it and hopped in the car, the door slamming shut as we drove down the road to find a good point to draw Rose and Emmett out of it. I still knew where they were, and that they would somehow be alive at the end of this.

The night swept across the land, blanketing the forest and the little town we'd loved.

**What happened with Bella, you ask? Read on, my pretties read on! -cackles and rides broomstick into the sky-**

My car was exactly where I'd left it thank whatever god vampires are supposed to pray to. I ran past the ground, torn from the earlier displays of violence.

My pale hand was wrapped around the handle when my lover- _ex-_lover, I was still having an extraordinarily difficult time thinking of him as anything outside of someone who had loved me, the broken me, and been just fine with the rather bitchy thing I'd pieced back together- burst through the border of trees.

I didn't lift my head t o look at him, merely smiling a small, pained smile.

"Will."

He was hesitating, his eyes big and black, silken coat ruffled from so much running. I'm sure mine was just as upset, but I didn't care.

Finally he seemed to swallow his strange cowardice and take a step forward. My hand was trembling as I let it fall from the door handle.

We moved forward slowly, quietly covering the distance between us.

We were only a foot or so apart now, my crimson eyes staring steadily up into his black ones.

We were really here, so close and so agonizingly far apart. I lifted a trembling hand to smooth the thick, silky fur of his face back against his wolf cheek, just beneath his sad eyes.

His head tilted into my touch, wincing at the same time at my cold, hard new hand.

A small, sad sound escaped my throat, and I let him move forward, turning his head so the side of his face touched the top of my head, my arms coming up around his neck as best they could, shaking so hard.

He nuzzled me, expressing his love in the only way he could as a giant wolf. I stroked his fur, doing my best to memorize the way it felt, how beautiful it was.

"Will…"

The warmth radiating off of him was too much, and the walls I'd worked so hard just recently to erect crumbled.

"I'm breaking," I whispered. I could feel him breaking too, or was he already broken? "I think I might already be gone. It hurts- oh it hurts every second. I thought it was bad when Edward left…" A tiny, sorrowful chuckle escaped my lips.

He pulled back, and my hands moved again to brush against the fur of his face, tracing his muzzle, his big black eyes.

I could feel the goodbye coming, and I tried to delay it, just by a moment.

Pulling his head gently down I stretched up onto my tip toes and kissed him between the eyes.

"I love you."

And with that my hands twisted in his fur, unloving for the first time, and my fist slammed into his face. Before he could recover, I kicked him, sending him backwards, thudding into a great tree, and nearly cracking it in half.

I was in my car, and when I turned to put the keys in the ignition Edward was there, in the passenger seat, looking pained for a moment before his face was as cold as mine.

"Drive."

My beautiful, suddenly worthless-seeming, car flew between the trees, finally escaping them and speeding down the highway.

**I swear on my Mac G5 that the next chapter will be longer.**


	33. Chapter 33

**Disclaimer: Twilight is not mine, for God's sake, how many times to I have to say it?**

**Also…**

**Apologies to those of you out there who worship one god for speaking of said in a way that could be interpreted as sacrilegious seeing as how my religion is, as yet, undefined but most likely Atheist.**

**Warning: Maria swears in this one. Again.**

**And as to why Bella hurt Will in the last chapter it was just to get him to let go of her. Normally getting kicked by a vampire wouldn't affect a werewolf his size, or shouldn't, but he was hardly expecting it.**

**Oh well he'll be okay.**

**And you'll just have to wait and see about whether or not he's suicidal.**

Emmett and Rosalie were currently holding hands, the only part of them that could still move, in the back of Bella's car.

They were healing quickly, one of the many perks of being a vampire.

Bella was still glaring blankly ahead of us. I sighed, the aching deepening…

We arrived at the airport without incident, but the wolves were always near. The others sensed them and I heard their thoughts, although I wished I couldn't.

_Leaving, this is…_

_...Where is…_

_What next?_

…_Sam, will we…._

_I know you can hear me you fucked up little leech._

I froze in my tracks, my family moved ahead, checking in, calling accountants, transferring what little material possessions we cared about north.

To Denali, where the only family any of us really had lived.

I listened unwillingly, shocked by the feral, _female_ voice whispering to me. The female we'd seen with them must have been the one speaking to me now.

_Tell Bella that I'll miss her._

I was surprised at how tenderly the female thought of Bella, but, being unable to respond without sprinting through the crowd of humans and shouting at the trees in the distance, I stayed where I was.

"What is it, Edward?"

Alice looked up at me as she spoke, holding out my ticket.

"Nothing." I took the offered ticket, and turned around to look at Bella. She seemed to be coping with her heartbreak well, considering she hadn't massacred the humans milling around us yet.

I walked slowly over to her, careful, and practical shaking with the need to embrace her and comfort her. For all her stony features and rigid posture she looked so small and lost.

I had lifted a hand to touch her but snapped it back down when she turned to look at me.

"Time to go?"

"Yeah. Let's go, Bella…"

We moved through the terminals silently, I always watching her from the corner of my vision. She seemed immune to the activity around her, including my never-wavering gaze.

We were seated; the tiny plane's first class only just big enough to fit my family.

I sat next to Bella, watching her stare out the window, worrying…

**Bella's perspective….**

I curled up on the faux-leather seat, wrapping my arms around my legs. I was intensely aware of the 70-something heartbeats pounding behind me, and struggled hard not to kill everyone with a pulse.

And a few without a pulse, but that could wait…

I sighed and let my fingers brush the window as the engines came to life, propelling us forward and then into the sky.

I didn't like this, this knowledge coiled in the back of my mind, waiting to spring itself and ruin me.

I felt like one of those ticking time bombs you sometimes see in movies or real life if you're so unfortunate; pull the right wire and everything was saved. But someone had ignored the rules and instead of pulling the red wire and living happily ever after they had yanked _all_ of the wires out.

So now the question was, where do we go from here? Do I take the easy way out and just beat on Edward some more for, yet again, breaking my heart, and then just…run. Flee the waking world and the truth of what I'd become with it.

But that wouldn't work, because of that stupid thing in the middle of me that sang when Edward looked at me, or said my name, or brushed against me.

Stupid heart.

I hated that godforsaken organ as much as I missed Will.

I sighed, shifting slightly in my seat so I was angled towards Edward and his I'm-not-staring-at-you-waiting-for-you-to-crack look.

"Edward." I breathed his name and my eyebrows pulled together slightly. This was going to be difficult. But essential, nonetheless, "What's up?"

He smiled, relieved that I wasn't hysterical or feral.

"Nothing much, Bella."

We smiled at each other, awkward, but content with this the way it was because of how considerably better it was than me attacking him and him just sitting there like a big love-struck wuss.

A fantastically gorgeous, noble, caring wuss but a wuss nonetheless.

We exchanged a few words, but mostly we stored what we really needed to say until the plane ride was over and we could get our issues out without endangering x amount of humans.

After all, words could keep forever…

**Edward's point of view…**

It was all I could do to keep from babbling with relief like an idiot that Bella had looked at me, that first time, and my consolation at her not trying to carve intricate, bloody patterns of hatred into my chest was so immense I would have been crying if I was human.

Luckily I wasn't so my dignity remained relatively intact, what little I had left anyway.

And then Bella had smiled.

I felt myself burst into flames and combust instantly, ever fiber of my being overjoyed at her maybe being happy.

The plane landed, and Bella let me be within a yard of her as we walked to where our respective cars were waiting for us.

Progress.

Instead of sliding behind the wheel of her inexplicably sexy car, Bella gave us one look, a short, rather strained-looking smile. Crimson eyes flicked over to mine, holding an invitation to join her for a run. I could smell the nervous energy from here.

But the invitation was delayed because Alice chose that moment to be… well, Alice.

"That will have to wait, Bella. The mall here has not been staked out fully, and there is no way in all of the fiery pits of Hell that I am letting you walk through the rest of eternity in a single outfit. "

By the end of her speech Alice had her arm around Bella's waist and was tugging unsuccessfully. Rosalie, having forgiven Bella for the moment, joined her, and Bella soon was clinging to the sidewalk crack. Her fingertips were the only things keeping her from several hours of shopping.

"Edward… Esme…. I know I've been pretty bitchy… but this is… just cruel…. Emmett!"

Bella was straining. The sidewalk began to peel back.

Emmett chuckled darkly.

"You're on your own here, Bella. Besides, we have a house to move into."

It was a flimsy excuse, we all knew it, but it was nice to see Bella acting more like the Bella we'd all come to love on our own respective levels. I felt the swelling relief that I'd felt before on the plane. This would take us all some time to get used to.

Not that I had a problem with _anything_ involving Bella. My love, unlike hers, had yet to die.

I repressed the surge of sorrow and focused on the present.

The sidewalk would most likely always do that interesting little spiral from Bella gripping it to keep from being kidnapped (lovingly!) by Alice and Rose.

"No worries, Edward, we swear that she'll be back to shunning you in no time!"

We collectively rolled our eyes as Bella started bickering happily with Rose. Peace between family members was always nice.

"See you later, Edward."

I looked up from the pavement to meet Bella's curiously smiling eyes.

A smile lit my lips before Alice had rolled her eyes and dragged Bella away.

**Random, I know. But longer than the last one. Ugh, Writer's Block sucks.**


	34. Chapter 34

**We'll get back to Will in just a second. For now Bella and Edward have some serious issues I need to do my best to make at least bearable before I begin work on _Indigo_. **

**Now that I think about it I seem to include colors in my titles like, a lot. Huh. Oh well it's too late now to consider the psychology behind that, READ!**

I waited on the slanting roof of the Denali coven's house. The fact that Bella was two hours late didn't bother me: she was with Alice and Rosalie out shopping, who could expect her to escape on time? Besides, I was too happy that she didn't seem to be very upset with me any more to care. We had all of eternity. Who needed two hours?

As I thought this I heard her approach, walking at her newfound speed, arriving in moments without tripping.

Amazing.

She was wearing a new dress, one of many, I was sure. Its dark, wispy material swirled around her bare calves.

I looked up to meet her eyes and was shocked out of my good mood.

"Bella?"

She didn't answer at first, just walked over and sat down next to me on the rooftop. Curling her legs up she wrapped her arms around them. The dress didn't cover them, and had she been human I would have already wrapped her in my jacket.

But she wasn't human, which I suppose was the point of this conversation, or at least the way it'd gone.

"Are you-"

"No, Edward. I'm not fine."

The moment of silence stretched for years until Bella spoke.

"I'm not here to reconcile our… issues. At least the ones we have with one another."

I was stung. We had issues? I was aware but it hurt to think of anything that might hurt Bella to the point where she couldn't even talk about it.

"You look hurt. Good."

She stood now, presumably to go.

"Wait," I winced at how weak I sounded. Begging for her to stay even now when she clearly didn't want my company. "Bella, why can't we at least be friends of sorts?"

She stared at me for a long time, eyes wide with a dark, unreadable emotion.

"What?"

"Friends. You and I. At the very least not enemies."

There it was, me begging her for something I knew she'd never give.

"Edward, you killed me." She ignored my flinch, moving on mercilessly in a cold tone with the undercurrent of rage, "You took from me my only love, the only person I had ever-_would _ever-" Bella cut herself off, breaking eye contact to regain her bearings, "The point, Edward, isn't that you really killed me, nothing as simple as the stopping of a pulse. It's that you _murdered_ me."

Her word choice cut my marble skin, leaving invisible scars that would never heal.

She turned again to leave and I couldn't help it as I said,

"I love you. Don't you… Did you ever… Did you ever love me back?"

Bella went rigid for a moment before relaxing and turning slowly to look back at me with the sad, loving eyes I'd missed so much.

"Of course," she said in that voice free of anger or loss, the voice of my Bella, "Of course I loved you. And I still do love you, Edward. I always have, and I always will."

She was in front of me now and reached down a few inches to take my face between her hands. She pulled me up and kissed me slowly and sweetly on the lips. We let our eyes close, and mine were still closed when she pulled away and said,

"I just don't like you anymore."

**The End! Ha, no, I kid. I have like 13 more pages left and THEN I'm thinking about making a sequel. I'm not sure, what do you think?**


	35. Chapter 35

**About 3 weeks to a month later…. The time after Bella "dies" in Forks…(JPOV) **

I watched Charlie cry on the couch from the outside, the sounds of his harsh sobs mixing with Bella's mother's and carrying through the wall. A slight wind picked up and carried the faint sounds of human mourning away. I swallowed dryly. Will still hadn't cried. The rest of us had, the day after they all left, mourning in our own ways.

I shifted nervously from paw to paw, waiting, worrying.

Why couldn't Bella just walk out of that tiny house and trip over the crack in the sidewalk like she used to? Why couldn't she smile up at Will and let the solitude that they radiated tell the rest of us that not every story was at tragedy?

I sighed through my large black nose and turned from the house, padding away. Nothing was going to happen here tonight. And besides, I had a funeral to go to tomorrow.

**The Next Day…**

**(WPOV)**

My eyes were darker somehow. They'd always been black but never dark, or at least not like this. The rest of me seemed the same, though maybe a bit older. But the eyes…

"_You have secrets for eyes, Will. Dark and mysterious and so beautifully tempting it makes people ache with curiosity," her voice had been half serious, half teasing. I'd smiled and arched an eyebrow._

"_Did you just say I was tempting?"_

_She'd grinned at the sarcastic amusement in my voice._

"_Yes, you're very tempting."_

"_You're one to talk."_

"_I'm serious! Have you ever considered becoming a gigolo?"_

The harmonic sounds of our long-dead laughter twisted together again as my mind replayed that blissful conversation. I desperately tried to focus again on the face staring back at me from the surface of the basin of water with lilies floating freely on it. My hair brushed against the bottom of my ears. I'd decided to grow it out in mourning instead of hacking it off like the others did traditionally. In my family our hair grew fast- Maria's was already curling at the bottom of her shoulder blades.

Said overly concerned sister was the one to break, my attempt at vanity.

"Staring at your face won't make it any prettier."

"It was worth a shot. Was that my voice? It was so flat. Nothing seemed real anymore.

"Will, stop this." Maria sounded hoarse, strained.

"Stop what?"

Maria snapped. Her stamina had been steadily eroded over the past weeks, as she was proving now.

"Stop this! Stop everything! This-this-this grief! This constant, unending agony over losing her," I stiffened. Don't say it, Maria; don't even think about- "Will! You can't bring her back; the Bella you loved is dead! Gone! Ashes to ashes, Will! Bella-"

"Don't." I hissed coldly, finally whirling to meet her angry, tear filled eyes. My own were not as emotionless as before, but I was too furious at the flippant se of her name to notice. My voice nearly cracked in sorrowful fury. "Don't say her name like that, putting it out tin the open for anyone to hear like it was any old word." I stalked forward, my hand flashing up to pin Maria to the wall by her windpipe. She maintained her answering glare as she struggled to breathe, "You do _not_ get to say her name." With an anguished cry I shoved her hard once against the wall before releasing her neck and turning, panting with the effort not to scream and tear myself apart.

Maria slid down the wall with a sigh of relief.

I heard Maria wheezing slightly behind me, and she coughed once before the double doors at the end of the hallway burst open and the pack came in, clad in their various mourning clothing. Maria and I were in all black; Maria hadn't worn anything else since she'd left. I, on the other hand, had been wearing black too in an attempt to disconnect the memories of her.

Bella had hated black.

The new one, the vampire one, that was walking around in her beautiful, twisted body… I had no idea what she liked and didn't like.

But that was unimportant. At the time nothing had mattered much except for the way the pack looked from sullen, teary-eyed Maria on the ground to me, and then away, saying,

"The funeral's starting."

In stony silence I moved past Maria, still on the ground, ignoring the way Jacob hurried over to her like the whipped little puppy he was.

Through the double doors we strode as a pack, ignoring the odd looks we were getting from Bella's relatives.

Outside everyone was gathered around a black granite tombstone. I wanted to rip the thing out of the ground and use it to beat the first vampire I saw into nothingness.

At least that way I'd have company.

The priest was talking now, something about what a lovely, law-abiding girl she'd been and how she'd touched everyone she met, changed all their lives however briefly for the better.

What a bitch.

Who did he think he was, going on and on about her when he'd never even met her? I scowled through my tears; at the time I'd hated him almost as much as the leech that had killed her.

When he asked if anyone had a few words to say, I could repress my fury at this ignorant man no longer and stalked forward, dark eyes filled with a righteous anger that was more warmth than, even as a wolf, I'd felt in what seemed like centuries.

"Young man?"

He looked surprise and, underneath the calm mask, afraid. I was nearly twice his height, not so much in physical presence but in the way everything around me seemed to bend to my will.

"I have something I would like to say," I took the final step forward, the step that put me not a yard away from the black granite slab with my love's name spelled out on it in uncaring letters," Bella," I whispered before going on, "Isabella was, very simply, _none _of the things the kind, but sadly ignorant in this matter, Father said. She wasn't _just _a beautiful girl who never J-Walked or whatever. She… she was endless. Endless and stunning and exactly what I wanted, but more. She was magnificent; clumsy with her big brown eyes and long brown hair and dazzling smile. She was Bella. And I love her.," my voice was quieter now, soft as I gazed at her 'grave.' "And now she's…" I trailed off. I'd been going to say 'a horrible, blood-sucking, demonically gorgeous creature' but instead I said, "dead."

Momentary silence filled the damp air, clouds rolled gently overhead before Sam summoned me away with a look and the pack left this scene of human despair.

We were into the woods just out of sight of the small, mourning gathering quickly, each of us exploding into wolves before we'd even taken a second step into the woods. As we ran back to the reservation, Maria spoke to me.

_Are you surviving?_

_No._

Somehow she managed to roll her eyes _through _her thoughts.

_Oh yeah because that whole heartbeat thing is just in our imaginations._

_Most likely._

_Shut up. _

There was a pause as she flicked over my past actions and current predictions about what I would most likely do.

_Where will you go?_

_Away._

_To our cousins?_

_Depends. Which cousins?_

_The ones in South-eastern Europe?_

_Sure. They're not much for conversation anyway, so we should get along just fine._

_And what about me? _The tone of her thoughts betrayed the fear she felt at living without me there, even though technically I was the younger sibling.

_You have the Pack._

_But I don't want the Pack to talk to and watch Monty Python with, I want you. You're my brother, who else?_

_Jake._

_Jacob? Why would I watch movies and eat things that will kill us one day with him? _ Her thoughts were suspicious. I felt the flicker of awkwardness pass through the minds of the others' as they politely held their silence.

_No reason._

_Stay._

_No. There is nothing for me here._

_There is me, and the Pack, like you said… thought, whatever._

_No. Without her nothing is worth staying for. At least there I'll be able to avoid any reminder of what was._

_Don't you mean _who_ was? _Maria's thoughts were irritated now, partially at my weakness, partially at her own.

_It doesn't matter. I will find George in Maine and his pack can hook me up with a boat to Croatia or somewhere near it and I'll hunt the rest of us from there._

_It could take you weeks, do you really want to risk never actually finding them? You do remember what happened the last time one of us tried to seek them out without a guide-_

_Yes. Of course I remember. But I am, shockingly enough, smart enough not to wander into Volturi territory unawares. I know the way._

_Then I'm coming too._

_No._

We were still running, Maria desperately keeping pace with me. We'd long since broken away from the main group and she was trying unsuccessfully to guide me off my course to Maine.

_Yes, I am._

_If you try it you'll leave behind everything and everyone you've spent these past months befriending._

_So will you, William._

_Maria. _My thoughts were accompanied by a low growl. _Stop being ridiculous. What's left of my heart and mind aren't enough to maintain a healthy relationship with anyone here. Hopefully the wolves in Europe and the Middle East or whatever will be just as emotionally damaged._

_They're feral! Will!_ Maria whirled on me now, snarling and bristling. I towered over her and merely looked down with a cold, flat expression. _Don't do this! William, Brother, if you so much as take one-_

_Fine. Come with._

Her fur flattened in shock, ears twitching back. I tilted my head lazily, waiting for her to let me move forward again. After a minute of pondering she turned and we started running again, covering miles in minutes.

We didn't converse again for a long time, which was probably good.

Nothing I could've said would've done anything but depress her, and Maria had had enough of that. Hollowly I'd decided to focus what was left of my conscious mind on three things: running to Maine and then to the other Pack, Maria's sanity, and not ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever see any sign of Bella again.

The earth sped away beneath my dark, silver, somehow metallic furred paws.

I urged myself forward, ignoring the way my muscles burned, or how-through Maria's thoughts- I could feel her limbs burning as well. But neither of us stopped.

All that was left was the earth beneath and the night above and the blinding loneliness Bella had left behind.

In the back of Maria's mind common sense whispered to stop for the night.

No such voice spoke in mine; it was long gone.

All I heard in the back of my mind was the part of me that couldn't seem to stop sobbing, saying,

_Bella, oh Bella…_

Who knows why we kept running; I assume Maria did it because to run meant to hold on to the only thing left of our family: me. All I know is that I ran, pushing myself past what should have been the limit as night turned into days, and days into weeks, before we reached Maine. And I knew that I did it because the giving into the almost feral desire to do so meant that I could ignore the very feral desire to howl my anguish out and hunt until I dropped from starvation. The urge to hunt- anything and every thing- had not been that strong before, not even when I first phased and even Charlie had smelled good in a disturbing way for a little while.

My black eyes reflected nothing despite the scenery flashing past, simply glared coldly out at the world.

We were on a ship now, George's pack having successfully hooked us up with an ocean barge headed for the Mediterranean. George's spare, uniform black sweatpants and oddly military black turtleneck unnecessarily kept out the spray. Maria herself was clad in a similar, but somehow feminine, outfit, also courtesy of George, or rather, his cousin.

_Bella… _

**Late, I know, but I've been trying. R&R pleeease.**


	36. Chapter 36

**This is the end. Be prepared. **

_**Tell her**_

_**Not to go**_

_**Tell her**_

_**Tell her**_

_**That something in my mind**_

_**Freezes up from time to time**_

_**Tell her**_

_**Not to go…**_

I watched from the doorway as she stared out her window at the mountains that reared to stab the sky. She sighed again, clearly bothered by something she'd kept to herself these past months. Summer had come and gone without much incident, the clan was worried but it was only to be expected: she hadn't more than fifty words in almost four months.

Bella reached up and let her palm rest against the frosted glass, the only sign that winter was less than two months away.

"Global warming, huh Edward?"

Bella spoke without looking up. I sighed and stepped fully into the room. None of us had quite figured out what her power was, if she even had one. But I had noticed that whenever Bella didn't want any of us bothering her other things to do seemed to crop up suddenly. Mayb-

"I'm leaving, Edward."

I froze.

The leaves on the trees outside spontaneously combusted and the mountains began to crack.

No, wait, that was just me.

She sighed again, moving past the statue I'd become. I listened without turning to the rustle of cloth as she changed out of the elegant autumn dress. The sound of jeans being pulled on and a shirt being pulled down, and Bella was in front of me again. All Stars in hand, I had no idea why she liked those shoes; black with pink laces and a pink stripe down the back that said "Love You." While I knew that the Converses had nothing to do with her leaving, they still seemed at fault somehow. I glared at them emptily.

Bella pulled a thing, black, cashmere sweater down over her bright blue cami. Don't ask me how I know these things.

As she pulled her long, dark silken hair out from where it'd been pinned beneath the sweater, she spoke.

"I'm tired, Edward, and useless here."

My mouth still wasn't working.

"This, me being here, isn't working. I'm just depressing the others and taunting you on some level with my very presence.

Her voice was calm. Outside a light, icy drizzle began. I hated October.

"I won't take my sexy beast."

What? Oh, she means her car.

"Sell it, trash it, do whatever you want to it. Just remember: A car CAN be as sexy as you, if not more so."

Bella grinned at me. I felt myself sink as I realized that leaving us—leaving me—made her happy.

My mouth opened and I prayed to every deity I'd ever heard of that the words that came out would be t he right ones, or at least coherent.

Instead I got:

"Bella…. Don't go… I…"

Her smile faded and she was in front of me in an instant, beloved face not an inch from mine.

"Edward," she whispered. I don't know why, it just felt like a whispering moment, which was odd considering how much I wanted to scream and beg her not to leave me, "I'm so sorry."

Before she could vanish into the autumn afternoon, I kissed her. It was short and sweet and full of an un-fulfill-able longing. Her nails dug into my forearms for a moment before she flashed away, the falling leaves barely disturbed by her lightning passage.

It was a fe moments after she left that I collapsed, legs finally failing me. I cried her name until I began to catch wisps of my family's thoughts. The night, rising outside, was beginning to look very attractive.

I ran, the October dusk swallowing me whole.

**Lyrics from _Tell Her_ By Del Amitri. Feel free to look it up, but beware of the music video on Mutton chops? Not cool man, not cool.**

**I WOULD just end the chapter here, but the real Maria, the one whose shoes I stole for this chapter, would kill me. Slowly.**

**Which is why the END comes out tomorrow; instead of in two months or however long it would've taken me without friendly threatening from my friend. -Glares in Maria's general direction-**


	37. Fin

**This is the song I was listening to as I was brooding about whether to post this here or on my livejournal where the sequel already is up. Whoops I probably shouldn't have said that but oh well.**

**Anyway….**

**Displaced by Azure Ray**

…_It's just a simple line_

_I can still hear it all of the time_

_If I can just hold on tonight_

_I know that nothing_

_Nothing survives_

_Nothing survives_

_I think I'm turned around_

_I'm looking up_

_Not looking down_

_And when I'm standing still_

_Watching you run_

_Watching you fall_

_Fall into me_

_Am I making something worthwhile out of this place?_

_Am I making something worthwhile out of this chase?_

_I am displaced_

_I am displaced…_

**What Happened With Bella…**

The Italian night seemed to breathe, the darkened countryside sighing against the clear constellations.

Idly, I wondered where the moon was while the part of my mind that tended to think things worth thinking scanned the land. I set off running again, what direction was a mystery but I knew I was getting close. Unwanted, the voice of Will from several months ago, when I'd first discovered that he was not quite human, came back to me.

"_My family, unlike Jacob's, comes from a pack that used to live around Italy. We'd been there for a few millennia before my family decided to venture into the new world." The ghost sounds of Will's laughter echoed through my mind, "Lucky break for me, don't cha think Bella?"_

Forcefully I let the memory drift back into the shadows of my human mind; I didn't need that kind of pain.

Within the hour the smell of numerous humans in one place came to me. Into the oddly medieval place, V-something, I ran, at human speed now. Before long I found myself in a large square with an oversized clock on a tower and a fountain in the middle. I breathed in deeply through my nose: one of us had been through here not very long ago. The trail led down an alley, around a few corners, and to a very grand set of double doors. I followed the smell up two stories through the grand elevator and was soon standing across a desk from a woman who was sadly mortal.

"Hello, do you have an appointment?"

I returned her smile, playing the game with her for now. I wasn't sure of how long it would last, her pulse had quickened minimally after her knowing eyes had taken in my marble skin and brilliant red eyes. Not to mention the fact that despite the color of my eyes, I was starving.

"Yes. I'm here to see some...people-old friends of a friend of mine. You might know them as Marcus, Caius, and Aro? Ringing any bells?"

"I'm sorry miss, I'm afraid you'll need an appointment to see-"

Now I was bored **and** hungry. Before she could blink I'd hauled her across her obscenely expensive receptionist's desk by the front of her tasteful jacket. My eyes were wide and as terrifying as my smile was now.

"Listen, Little Mortal, I have had a _very_ long week. And, to be perfectly honest, you bore the shit out of me. So pick up that phone or light up the bat signal or whatever it is you do and get those oldies down here before my appetite gets the better of me. And believe me when I say, I'm not a fast eater."

Apparently Will's lessons in threatening uncooperative people had stuck, although admittedly that was a tad over the top.

Within ten seconds of me voicing my demands a very tiny, angry, she-vampire walked into the room with a goon on either side. I let the human go and turned to face them, my smile polite but cold.

"Who are you?"

What a demanding little girl, I thought abstractly.

"Bella, and who are you?"

"Jane. What do you want here?"

"To forget."

She measured me for a moment with her burgundy eyes before turning and walking back down the hallway.

"Jane?"

Goon #1 called after her.

"Bring her. Aro will want to see this." When he failed to do anything except give his fellow immortal Neanderthal a look that either said, "I don't trust this newbie," or "You look sexy in that dark concealing cloak, Jedi-rip off or not." She spoke again, done irritated, "Sometime this century, Felix!"

Repressing a smug grin, I pushed between them after her.

"Whose coven do you hail from?"

"No one. I was never one of them."

"That's not the point. Aro will want to know who he's taking you from, if he takes you in at all." With her next words she gave a brief, musical laugh. "God forbid anyone from Carlisle's coven try to come to us."

Shit.

When I didn't respond she shot me a mildly curious look.

"So who sired you?"

"Edward."

I tried to keep my tangled emotions from my voice. They could learn about my issues later, when it was too late to get rid of me.

Jane's angelic expression now showed hints of confusion.

"You mean that depressed freak Carlisle has been toting around for almost a century now?"

I gave a shot, humorless laugh.

"Yeah."

Jane said no more for we had arrived, Felix and Goon #2 opening the beautiful doors. The room, by comparison, was shockingly poor, empty save for a man with a hood of black silk hair with a palm pressed into the palm of another immortal child who could've been Jane's male twin in life and a painting hanging on the wall. The boy's free hand was hovering over it.

They didn't seem to be aware of us for a moment before I foolishly stepped forward, planting a travel-worn Converse on the white stone floor, the same color as the bleached walls and high ceiling.

The boy's eyes flashed open reflecting not the light from the hallway but what appeared to be something burning, and the goons swore as the world fell away from us.

Everything blurred-_I _blurred- for a moment before coming almost painfully into focus. I felt a weight in my hand and looked down in shock to find a sword, slick with dark, sickeningly fresh blood. All around me fighting was going on. It was clearly another time, the castle- flaming on the hilltop –told me as much. Looking around I could see hundreds, if not thousands, of other vampires hacking down mortal foes with a deadly ease. But something in this darkly warming scene was off, something wasn't-

The wolves came thundering over the hills of the night-swathed countryside. Our battle roars mixed, as did our warring ranks. I heard myself and my comrades cursing in an ancient language that flowed flawlessly off my tongue despite my ignorance to what was actually being said as three huge wolves came running towards us. The Bella part of me froze as I saw them run past a burning house: Their fur shone metallic-graphite shining dully in the flickering light of the flames. These must be Will's ancestors. The aforementioned Bella part of me wondered over this dully as the alien rest of me continued to battle.

One or the beautiful, dark silver werewolves caught sight of me and lunged, pinning me to the ground, black eyes so like Will's as it pulled back to-

"Bella! Bella, you idiot! You're a vampire, you really should know better than that!"

I felt another slap across my face.

My crimson eyes snapped open and my hand was just fast enough to catch Jane's hand as it came back down.

"Oh my, what have we here?"

My eyes flicked over to the black haired man's. A pale, delicate hand appeared from his black robes. I took it as I rose fluidly.

"Aro?"

The man smiled, tilting his head.

"Yes. You must be Bella, judging by Jane's...loving…sentiments."

I let myself smile at that. 'Loving.' Scoff. Jane scowled and looked away, but it was more of a pout than an act of anger. What an odd little girl. Why didn't anyone seem to be able to stand up to her when she was bitchy?

Some royalty.

Ah well, I'd do what I could.

"May I ask your intentions, Bella?"

"I hope to forget."

"Forget what?" When I opened my mouth to answer he cut me off with a small, secretive smile, "No, you needn't speak to answer. Simply give me your hand."

"In marriage?" I joked, slightly nervous suddenly. Who knew what the strange vampire's powers were? Outside of cowing tiny, immortal biOtches.

Aro released a small laugh and offered his hand again, surprisingly patient with my games.

His eyes held a secret sparkle, a promise of something unexpected. At the time I'd foolishly taken his hand without asking why. I'd already made it through the worst possible things imaginable, how could this be any harsher?

Our hands locked and I was beyond shocked when nothing happened. Aro merely let his eyes drift closed before a frustrated look appeared after a moment.

As a vampire the world pulls into sharper focus, to say the least. Then, as a newly created immortal, I was still working on reigning in my intensified sensitivity. Which was why this innocent handshake felt so invasive. I could practically _feel_ Aro's power trying to snake its way around my mental shields. I felt him begin to latch onto one of the memories of Will that were still foremost in my mind, because I never stopped thinking about him sad as that was. With not a little spite for his authority I used my own to tap on the connection our hands had formed, sending a feeling akin to an electric shock back through his hands and up to somewhere in front of his occipital lobe, or wherever our powers root themselves.

With a jolt he released me, looking confounded, most likely by the wall I'd presented him with but probably a little with the shock I'd sent him.

But apparently he hadn't come away with just that, because he hissed at me, nostrils flaring, spitting the words as if they were venom,

"_Wolf_ friend."

Frick.

My mind worked very quickly, my body tensing along with those of the immortals around me; no one had ever read my mind before, _no one, _and now that they had it seemed that the person to do so had come away with the one bit of information (well, one among many) that would get me in serious trouble with these people I so desperately needed shelter from and seemed keen on giving me the evil eye until I was sure to implode or blush or something equally absurd and my this was a long rant I should probably be paying attention to what they're saying.

"We're just going to keep her? But she's just…her! And a _lupus dilectio, _and God knows what else…" Jane was surprisingly impassioned about this for someone who'd just met me.

No one said anything for a moment, waiting for Aro to pass judgment.

"Normally I wouldn't want to offend Carlisle by taking one of his own," Aro's voice was cold and he was holding hands with both Jane and the little boy, I noticed, "but it seems that Bella, _isn't_ his, at least not any more." Again no one responded. Felix and his boyfriend (?) opened their mouths to speak but Aro cut them off.

"You're not getting out of this one. She'll join the Trackers, Demitri. Her gift will prove to be… very interesting, I'm sure."

I followed them as they strode out of the room that now appeared to be a gallery of sorts. Odd, what had happened to the blank room I'd so quickly come to know and despise?

Demitri and Felix didn't give me time to figure it out, talking as soon as we were out of the gallery, imposing doors closed behind us.

"Like Hell I'm taking in such a child. For pity's sake… Screw it Felix…"

Demitri made an angry noise and whirled to face me. I nearly ran into them as I hurried to stop walking.

"Listen up: You're little more than an ignorant babe around here, so for your first week you'll follow me wherever the job takes me. If you don't get it by the end of the week, you'll have to go back to the New World."

"Okay, first of all MR. B.F.G., we're calling it America now. Second of all, good kind of babe or irritating kind?" My smile was slightly condescending with just a hint of the laughter concealed underneath.

Demitri was unshaken, although Felix looked almost pleased that I was not entirely toothless.

"Hmmm," he ran his filthy burgundy eyes along my body in obvious approval, "Both."

"Mr. B.F.G.?" Felix's look was confused and slightly…upset? Why? Probably because he had to ask an "ignorant babe" (and an American at that) about something.

"Big Friendly Giant. It really fits you better, though, so I'm thinking about 'Jane's Whipping Boy,' but that could breed malcontent so maybe I'll just cut it down to whatever girl's name comes to mind first."

Demitri had me slammed against the lobby wall faster than Felix (or I) could blink. Not that I needed to.

"Bella. I am not generally a very nice person to new people I meet, even when happy. So believe me when I say, you won't like me when I'm angry."

"The Hulk."

"What?"

"You know, big green guy? 'You won't like me when I'm angry!' " I dropped my voice several octaves to imitate The Hulk's. Demitri and Felix didn't seem to get it. Rolling my eyes, I sighed. "Never mind. Take your hands off me."

"Why? Aro didn't say we couldn't playfully harass the newbie and this seems to fall into that category nicely."

"Ha," my smirk matched his for a moment before any false signs of humor fell from my face. A drum, or something similar, somewhere in the backs of everyone's' minds, deep and echoing. Felix, who'd gotten bored and wandered off to flirt with the human, snapped his attention back over to us. The human tilted her head, looking around for some sign or a drum. Demitri's eyes narrowed and he shook his head.

Boom.

It was louder. I had only done this a few times but I still knew where to feel with the edges of my mind, tugging at just this one little thread in reality.

Boom.

The furniture began to shake with every pulsing beat now I turned it up just a touch in my mind.

Boom.

The walls tried to flex with the mute drum, cracking with the effort.

Boom.

We heard the door slaw open a little after that one, and almost after Jane appeared, looking aggravated.

Boom.

"What the He- "

Boom.

The cracks grew. Through them, instead of castle stone, the Dark pressed, liquid and solid all at once against our reality, trying to claw its way inside.

Boom.

"Bella! Demitri put her down!"

Demitri's hands snapped away from my upper arms, and he glared suspiciously at the Dark, its black almost corporeal, giving off a sense of…nothingness.

Boom…

Oh yeah. Somehow, don't ask me how, I used my un-hands to pull the universe back into something that sort of made sense.

Momentary silence filled the room before the angry people started yelling at me. Their voices mingles noisily, but Jane's hiss cut them all off.

"Bella."

She was glaring at me. I stared blankly back, waiting patiently for something to happen.

"What the- "

Jane shot Felix a look and ran forward to grip one of my hands with on of hers while her other reached up to press against my temple.

She hissed her angry, still glaring and holding me in that rather uncomfortable position.

"Um, Jane…"

With a short, angry cry she let me go and whirled, storming out of the room.

More silence.

"Are you gong to kill me now, or can I just wander randomly?"

Jesus Christ, what was it with these people and silence?

"No, no killing. But something suspiciously like it."

_Harder To Breathe,_ by Maroon 5, a surprisingly American song, pounded out from between the cracks of the door, broken occasionally by gunshots and what were probably the sounds of someone cursing as a bullet recoiled back at them.

Demitri pounded on the one of the thick tower doors several times, the fibers of the foot-thick wood beginning to crack before it was swung outward, nearly smacking Felix in the face as the music cut off abruptly.

"What's up, 'Mitri?"

The girl who spoke's voice was bored and at first, judging by the haircut, I couldn't tell if it was male or female (who can these days?). But as the inky, straight black hair strained with deep shades of blue and purple flipped aside revealing a face so harshly beautiful it actually hurt.

With skin the barest shade paler than mind and cheekbones you could cut yourself on, the girl was beyond belief. Her full, cupid's-bow mouth curved up naturally, just a little, giving her a beautiful, lightly amused look. Large eyes were unnatural purple-blue, contacts of some kind over red-black eyes? Her jet-black hair was layered in that modern-rocker style, brushing past the corner of her jaw at the longest point. Every few second she's sort of twitch her head to flip her (awesome) bangs out of the way of her bored gaze. Subtle streaks of different shades of dark blue and purple gave her hair a surprisingly contemporary look, for a vampire. Heavy eyelashes shaded her eyes. Her amazingly flawless skin made the rest of ours appear almost _human _in comparison, and nearly glowed against her dark (awesome) hair. The girl's long neck and elegant collarbone were as perfect as the rest of her and-

"Hello? I can see you, you know. What is this, a joke from Aro? Be kind, 'Mitri, rewind."

I'd opened my mouth to apologize but shut it as the lady had gone ahead. I had the odd sensation that, was I still human, I would have been blushing and tripping over my own feet.

Felix and Demitri laughed, Demitri explaining.

"Be nice, Indigo. She's the latest freak from the Colonies."

"**Still** calling it America, Hulk."

Indigo's lip twitched in repressed amusement. Felix interjected.

"Silence, Bella, would be wise. It is not an easy task to get indigo to take a newbie under her wing-"

"She has _wings_?" The sarcasm would've killed Felix had he not already been dead.

"All harpies do, Colonist." Indigo's words drew a smile from me and a 'Shut up, Indigo!' from the Hulk and Mr. B.F.G.

"As I was saying- it is not an easy task to convince Indigo to take a newbie under her wing without driving them physically, mentally, and sometimes literally over the edge. So I as-"

"Please, 'Hulk,' you know you like it. And sure, I'll take her. Just do me a favor."

Demitri and the Hulk sighed as one and looked on the edge of running off.

"What?"

"Take care of my trash."

She reached behind the doorframe and lifted a dazed, hole-riddled vampire by what remained of the collar of his shirt.

"Ugh," Felix's nose crinkled as he caught the limp vampire, "How long has this been here? You should really empty you trash more often."

Indigo merely rolled her eyes, turning to walk back into the tower, saying, "Just get rid of it, Felix. _Or_ don't dump so much crap on me in the first place."

It wasn't a question.

Felix smiled and turned, slinging the vampire over his shoulder. Demitri barked a laugh and followed.

I looked between each receding party, confused, before following Indigo up the stairs,

Demitri's laugh echoing around us. Indigo pressed a concealed button and some random song started in the background.

I could get used to this.

**FIN**


End file.
